A Lesson in Adventure
by CaptainWolfe11
Summary: When Jane Wolf wishes herself into the world of Mass Effect, she gets all that she hoped for, and maybe more... She is turned into an Asari and given a new identity. What lies in store for her? What shall she do? Especially when she finds someone just as lonely as herself after she joins C-Sec...Kolyat/OC. My first Fanfic! Please read and review!
1. Prologue: The Awakening

**_Okay, so this is my first fanfic, and I'm anxious to see what people have to say about it, so please review! I welcome criticism where it is due, but please don't be evil:) The Prologue is shorter than the chapters, and a little less awesome, so bear with me through it! Enjoy! _**

**_Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect, but the OC's are MINE!_**

For seventeen years of my life, I had never found anything particularly interesting about the plain white ceiling of my bedroom. It wasn't textured, or cracked. There was nothing on it, except an equally boring air vent and a smoke detector. But to my complete and utter surprise(or rather, surprise I would feel later), it was the only thing I had looked at for hours. Nothing anyone had said could get me out. I was currently catatonic, which in simpler terms means, "desperately wanting to strangle whoever the crap had come up with the ending of Mass Effect 3". I sighed, for the umpteenth time. My phone buzzed beside me, and after a moment of gathering the gumption, I opened the text. It was my friend, Mira.

I told u not 2 get ur hopes up. The ending is brutal.

-MJ

I sighed and texted back.

I know I know. I didn't think it would be that bad. My Shepard DIED! And so did Anderson! I was so mad I shot the stupid Illusive Man. Bloody jerk!

-JW

I only had to wait a few seconds before I got an answer. Mira Jade could text at five and a half times the speed of sound.

I know how u feel. I went thru the same thing. Just let it wait a few days.

-MJ

What do you mean? YOU had multiplayer. I did not.

-JW

Well, I sacrificed my Shepard, so it kind of is the same.

-MJ

Not really, Mira. Anyway, thanks for trying to help. I'm gonna try and get some shut eye. Night

-JW

Mira texted me goodnight and I slipped under my covers. I thought I had excepted the fact that my Shepard would die. What would I have done if I had been her? One of her squad mates, or even someone who only knew her? I knew I shouldn't be so worked up about a game, but if that was real life, what would I have done? I had never been faced by anything of real importance and danger in my life, so I had no clue. I kind of resented that fact. I mean, people I know that have had trying times are always forged anew. Like Mira. Her mum had died when she was little, and as a result, she was always way braver than me; and stronger. I sighed. "I wish I could live in the Mass Effect Universe. It's sooo cool there." I sighed and stared back at the ceiling. I was starting to get acquainted._ Maybe I should name you_, I thought wryly. Then I closed my eyes, and invited sleep to take me.

* * *

"Teleya! Teleya, are you awake yet, dear?" I groaned. Who was this Teleya? I just wanted to sleep more. "Teleya!" The persistent voice called. Rolling over, I gasped. MY HAIR! It was gone! A hand flew up to my head and I just felt skin. The skin felt weird though; softer than it normally was. What happened to me?! I Looked around for the first time, and saw that I was in room. It just wasn't my room. _Okay._ I thought. _This must be a dream. _I then immediately noted that it couldn't be a dream, because I can never tell I'm dreaming when I'm in a dream. I spotted what looked like a mirror and made a mad dash for it. Stumbling to a halt, I looked at my reflection-and screamed. I heard running, and the door flew open. I looked up to see an Asari woman looking terrified. "Teleya! Are you alright? What's wrong?!" I breathed deeply, feeling like I was going to faint. "N-Nothing. I-I just had a nightmare." The woman looked relieved. "Well...okay. Just remember, your mother's here for you if you need it." I nodded, and she left. A good thing to, because my legs gave out and I fell to the floor. I looked back at my reflection. I was an asari. That dream idea seemed a lot better now, but it couldn't be. This was all to real.

The asari in the mirror looked back at me. She had light periwinkle skin, that wasn't all one color like most asari. It reminded me of Benezia's skin, or Samara's. She had 'eyebrows' like Liara, a tad darker than the skin around them. Her eyes were like crystal-so clear and refreshing. The could bore through you, or comfort you. They were like sapphires, with diamonds weaving through. Her lips were tiny and delicate, not all that darker than her skin. They were smooth and glossy, even though she didn't appear to be wearing lip gloss. She was pretty, in a shy, late blooming flower kind of way. She was actually one of the prettier asari I had seen. She had little freckles on her cheeks, subtle and cute freckles, not the dark stupid ones I had as a human. _As a human! _I was a human, but the asari looking where I was looking, and blinking when I was blinking, begged to differ. I was her, and she was I.

How had this happened? I was talking to Mira, and then...Oh Keelah! The wish! No way! My word, if it was that...I backed up and put my head in my hands, shaking. If it was that...than this was real, like one of those fanfictions. What would I do? Join Shepard? I was an asari, so I had biotics, but that didn't mean I could use them. What would I do with my life? Was this permanent? I shouldn't go out and do something stupid thinking it wasn't, because it could be...Now that I had established that I was in fact in Mass Effect, I was doing a _little_ better. To be honest, I had kinda fantasized about it, so I already knew my answers. Being in the future was cool enough, I didn't need to go die. I could just...live a life, maybe see Shepard. I also wanted to help people, and go and do something productive. I shouldn't just waste the last 70 years of my maiden stage staying at home. I blinked, and hit the rewind button. How had I known that? I mean, apparently this girl existed before me, so it made sense, but she hadn't been me. I shook my head. If I thought about this any longer my tentacles would explode. I smirked, and the girl in the mirror smirked back, revealing a little bit of my old self between the cracks. This was me. This was me being interesting.

* * *

Days, weeks, and months ticked by, and I was adjusting. The memories of 200 years had slowly come back, but it wasn't all that bad, because I had apparently done nothing of interest. I had spent my maiden years at home, resisting the urge to travel. My mother and I lived alone in an apartment on the citadel. She was incredibly warm and friendly, and I grew close to her, but it wasn't the same as my real mom. It was terrible, but sometimes I didn't really miss them, and was starting to forget them, like the 200 years was pushing my past life away. I could still remember Mass Effect, but my family, my friends, my school, were all disappearing. Jane Wolfe was turning into Teleya T'Leri... I was working hard to become a psychologist, because they still had them in the future and I always wanted to be one. The strangest thing, though, was my body. I was like an adult, and people treated me like one. Things were going well, and I was actually getting used to things. Until the geth attack. I was expecting them, and had been training my biotics, and as much as I could, a pistol. But I hadn't been ready enough...

**_So! Tell me what you think!_**


	2. Chapter 1: The Attack

**_First Chapter...Ta Da! I can't believe so many people have already read my story! It's really exciting. I'm going to try and post new chapters every week, or maybe sooner if I can't wait. I've written a few ahead as a buffer in case I get really busy and can't write, in which case I don't want readers to suffer. By the way, it might be obvious, but if you haven't played through all three games, there might be some spoilers in later chapters._**

**_Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect, so stop asking! I don't own Star Trek either, my character is just a Trekker. _**

The Presidium was filled with fire and smoke, and the burning ash stung my eyes and clogged my throat. I held my new pistol in my right hand, and a biotic barrier in my left. It covered my mother and I as I peeked around the wall. We had to abandon our apartment after a fire broke out, and we were now trying to make it to somewhere sheltered without windows, maybe the consort's building. I couldn't see any Geth, but the ash had been playing tricks with my eyes. _I wish I had some sort of life detect spell like in Oblivion._ Sparing less than a second for that unnecessary thought, I waved my mother forward. "It's clear, come on, let's go!" I held the barrier up as we ran to cover on the other side of the ring. Loud shots crashed around me and a weight fell upon me like a rock—it was the Geth shooting at my barrier! "Goddess!" I shouted. I grabbed my mom and dove to cover, holding her close as we slammed down on the metal plating of the Presidium. While usually regulated by circulating reservoir water, the temperature of the floor was almost too hot to touch, and I felt my right cheek screaming from the burn it was receiving from the scalding metal. Quick bursts of Geth particle weapons exploded over our heads. I shoved my mother against the shard of metal that was protecting us. "Stay down!" I ordered, feeling the need to protect the only companion I had in this world. I propped my weapon up on the top of the metal and readied to pop my head up and aim. I felt a hand on my arm and I looked down into the terror-filled eyes of my mother, Weania.

"Be careful, Teli." I nodded, a new sense of determination filling my heart and pumping through my veins.

"Don't worry, mother. I'll be fine." I took a deep breath and then shot my head up, quickly assessing the approximate number of Geth and their locations. One dead ahead—no cover. Two to my right—obscured by bushes but still hittable. One to my front left—behind a crate. _How did those crates just show up everywhere?! _I inwardly complained. The Geth in front aimed at my head, and as he shot I ducked back in cover. The pulse hit the metal directly above my head. I heard a soft sizzle and looked up to see that the metal was hot red and had melted slightly. "Qu'vatlh!" I growled. This barrier wasn't going to hold forever. I felt a bold rage overcome my fear. A few years ago I would be too afraid to move, but I had been practicing my offensive capabilities, and I _knew _what I was capable of. I also think the Asari Maiden's urge for adventure had effected me somewhat. I popped up out of cover, letting my orb-like barrier fall onto me like a second skin. I popped two rounds out of my hand cannon and downed the Geth in front, then turned to the one on my left, shooting it in the chest and leg. I yelped as I was pushed back by two pulses from the Geth in the bushes—their pulses hit my stomach but was absorbed by my ever weakening barrier. I tried to ignore the desperate cry of my mother. The two Geth shot again but missed, their smaller number reducing their intelligence. I threw out my hand at them and enveloped them in a deep blue biotic aura. They glanced around each other in panic as I swiftly lifted them off the ground. When they were about four meters up I stopped and they floated ominously there. They looked towards me, and I swore I saw some sort of plea there. I remembered the Geth heretics and Legion. I paused, and then said something I never would have expected. "I'm sorry." I murmured. "Go to your gods. Go to your...sea..." I clenched my fist and lifted it up to slam them to the ground. I staggered back as a pulse of energy hit me square in the chest, throwing me off balance and onto the ground plating. The two Geth I had suspended fell to the ground. I looked to where the shot came from. It was the Geth that I had shot in the leg. Apparently I hadn't killed it. It advanced and shouldered it's rifle. Just as it was about to shoot, it was knocked aside by a biotic blast and slammed into a wall so hard it didn't get up. In shock, I saw my mother shrouded in blue energy.

"Stay away from my daughter you son of a metal-" Her words were interrupted by shots from the other two Geth.

"Mom! Get down!" I drove my mother to the ground with a strong biotic thrust, just before the Geth would have shot her in the heart. Forgetting my mother, they swarmed over to me. I struggled to get my barrier up, but my strength was dwindling, and my mind was no longer focused. _I'm going to die! What's going to happen when I die? Will I wake up at home, will I die in my sleep at home. Do I even exist at home?_ I pondered all of this as I scooted backwards on the hot ground. The metal burning my palms was the least of my worries. The sweltering air was cut clean through by the sharp _Rat-at-at-at-at-at-at_ of machine gun fire. The two Geth exploded in front of me, and I shielded my eyes from the melting shrapnel. My arms and cheeks burned as their unprotected skin got stung by it, but it was a heck of a lot better than being dead. I shoved myself up with a quick biotic burst and looked to see who had shot at the Geth. I was secretly hoping that it was Shepard and his team, curious to see what kind of Shepard it was and who was with him for his final mission, but it wasn't Shepard. It was a Turian C-Sec officer who was running towards us. "Thank the prophets!" I exclaimed. Now free of immediate danger, I reflected on the irony of what I had said. I had cursed in Asari once, and then Klingon, before uttering a Bajoran saying of gratitude. I could only shake my head at my geekness. If only my previous self could see me now—shrouded in biotic energy, holding a gun (properly), purple blood oozing out of too many cuts, and still uttering Star Trek curses. He arrived flustered and out of breath, but was a very welcome sight. He leaned over and helped my dazed mother up, and I limped towards him.

"Are you ladies all right?"

I nodded, clutching my side to stop purple blood from spilling onto the ground. I managed a wry smile. "Never better. I don't know about my mother though." The older Asari Matron was in a trance, probably in shock, but she didn't seem hurt physically.

"I don't see any injuries." He added.

"I agree. We were headed for someplace safe, maybe like the consort's building." The Turian nodded with a rather impressed look on his face.

"All of the...alive C-Sec officers on the presidium thought the same. There's a small entrance we can bottleneck the Geth in, and a back we can use to hide civilians. Some of us were sent out to search for survivors, but you're the first I've found..."

"Well then," I rasped. "What are we waiting for. We need to get there soon. I'm worried about my mother." The older Asari had made no show of living in the real world since I had thrown her to the ground, but was looking at us blankly, as if she were trying to remember something. The Turian inspected her and nodded.

"Yeah, we better get someone to look at her..." He glanced over to me. "Hey, are you alright?" I didn't know if I could really answer that, but I felt as if my hearing was muted and the world seemed sluggish and slow. I must've been a few lighter shades of blue than was healthy. He looked to my midsection, and his small, birdlike eyes widened. "Holy crap! How did that happen?" I followed his gaze downward and could only gape.

"Hog monkies..." My gut was smothered in thick, warm purple blood, some of it starting to congeal due to the overactive platelets of Asari physiology. It saturated my clothes and smeared my arms. In my foolishness, I pulled my hand away, and tiny droplets fell to the ground and hit the scorched metal with many tiny little sizzles. Too many. "It must have been a...a stray bullet from your...assault rifle. Heckava day, huh? Get nailed by friendly fire instead of Geth rounds." The Turian grabbed my hands and pushed them into my stomach.

"You have to press hard, okay. We're going to get you to safety and patch you up if it's the last thing I do." He pushed on my back to herd me forward, which was slightly annoying but not completely unwanted in the circumstance, as I was having trouble finding the consort's chambers in my brain-map of the Citadel. He pulled my mother along behind him. We came to a bridge that arched over the reservoir, which was pitted and battered, but luckily still intact. I then thanked the logic of synthetics. Why destroy something that you might need later? The officer pushed me behind him. "I don't like this...something doesn't feel right." We both gazed around what little we could see. In my sights I could see shards of metal previously classified as 'heat resistant' broken apart in rigid edges and sticking up at weird angles. Various fires blazed out of sparking gaps in the metal ground, and all kinds of other shrapnel was flung half-hazardously all around the previously sparkling Presidium. _Come visit the Citadel, the safest place in the galaxy. _My mind reminded me of the news vids wryly.

"I don't see anything." I supplied. I glanced over to my mother, who was watching me intently. "Mom?" I whispered. I grabbed her arm. "What is it mom?" The Turian glanced back at us, but I gave him a look and he quickly went back to scouting the area with the scope of his sniper rifle. She looked as if she wanted to say something. She concentrated on me and talked slowly.

"You're out of danger?" Her chapped lips formed the words carefully.

I nodded. "Yes, mom. You saved me." I tried to smile, hoping she wouldn't see my gunshot wound.

She smiled gratefully. "Good. That's good." She said no more, apparently having said all she needed.

"All right. I don't see anything. I'll take point, you follow." He shrunk his sniper rifle and stuck it on his back, taking down his assault rifle instead. I nodded and clutched my pistol, dragging my delirious mother close behind me. We started slowly across the bridge, straining our eyes to see through the smoke. Where had all the Geth gone? It was possible they were all following Shepard. Ahead of us, the smoke moved unnaturally. The officer brought his gun up and so did I, but nothing came out of it. We were just overreacting—we were jumpy, and that was something that scared me more than any amorphous smoke. I suppose though, I should have been more scared of the smoke. Shots burst out of it suddenly, and I tried to erect a barrier in time. My mother was slightly off to the side—away from where I had left her, looking into the water. As a consequence, she wasn't in my barrier.

"Mom!" I shrieked. I tried to jump towards her, but it was already too late. Bursts of Geth pulse rifle rounds tore through her in a spray of purple blood. She convulsed, and then stood eerily still, like she was fine. She turned her head to look at me and tried to smile. It was then that a sob broke through my light blue lips. Then, like leaves in the gentle winds of Thessia, she fell to the ground. She was still after that. She was still forevermore. The Turian's strong hands wrapped around my waist and yanked me back, pulling on my wound and making me gasp in pain. "Mom! Mom! Let me go!" He was pulling me back with one arm, and shooting with the other.

"She's gone! She's dead and I'm sorry, but getting killed running to her body isn't going to change that!" I could have thrown him back with my biotics, but I didn't, and I suppose it was because I knew what he said was true. Or maybe it was the blood curdling sight of a Geth Prime sauntering out of the smoke, inky dark tendrils curling around its joints as it was caught in the advance. I froze. We both froze. Both parties had paused, staring at each other like they were two cowboys in an old western shootout. The only funny thing was picturing a Turian and a Geth in cowboy hats. Then, the Geth fired machine gun pulse rounds at us, and it was only my quick barrier that saved us. We were out gunned, and out numbered, as we soon found out, as the clicking and buzzing of Geth talk came up behind us. We looked each other in the eye, surrounded by flaming tendrils of a dying barrier. We were going to die, but we weren't going to die alone. Then, giving me a grim smile, he said. "Hold your breath." He pulled me close and ran towards the side of the bridge! I stumbled, making my steps match his own. We jumped on the edge and then pushed off, holding each other for dear life. The time we spent soaring through the air seemed to be longer than an Asari life span, and I could only begin to imagine what we looked like; two aliens in each others grasp, flying from a bridge with the spray on energy pulses exploding above and around them, surrounded by a bright blue field of biotic energy that flickered desperately before winking out, and plunging towards possibly too shallow water. I tried to ignore that last part. Slamming into the ground was better than being stomped on my a Geth Prime. I heard the high pitched beeping of an approaching missile and I threw back a singularity to make it blow up before it hit us. It did, but it blew us forward and separated us in the sonic wave. I squeezed my eyes shut as we hit the water, and when I sank down without any hard impact, I let out a breath. Which was a bad idea. I gasped for air but only breathed in water. I clutched my throat as I struggled, open mouthed. I tried to go up, but I was spinning, and I didn't know if I was swimming in the wrong direction. The air was sucked out of my lungs, and I felt it being replaced by water, choking me, and making my chest feel fit to burst with the sheer feeling of airlessness, which felt surprisingly like despair. Strong hands seized me, and I relaxed, letting the Turian pull me up. My head broke the surface and I sucked in air, but my lungs were filled with water, and I was still choking. A reflex made me barf up the water, and only then could I gulp in air. I gasped while the Turian dragged me to shore. I felt numb, which was, though dangerous, kind of awesome, because I was no longer in pain. He pulled me to shore, and I realized we were much farther down. We huddled in some drainage tubes that were empty, waiting for the coast to be clear, although we seemed kind of bad at determining that. I pulled my knees to my chest and stayed mostly quiet. I had so many things to say, but after what had happened, I felt as if they were all too superficial. "So..." He began awkwardly. "What's your name, miss?" I glanced up at him searchingly. In such a small amount of time we had been through quite a lot, so much so that it felt absurd that we didn't know each others names.

I blinked. After all of these years, I still felt the need to respond with my name I had before, and the pause it took my brain to find my new name was slightly awkward. "Teleya. Teleya T'Leri." I set my chin on my knees, and held a cloth to my stomach. I had ripped it off the bottom of my dress. He nodded.

He seemed to pause substantially before his next question. "What was her name?" I looked up with small tears forming in my eyes.

"My mother was Weania T'Leri." I sighed, and then tried to stop the awkward silence before it came. "And yours?"

"Gailen Syrenyis." It turns out I had only delayed the awkward silence. I smiled at the thought of him being so adept in the battlefield, but so inept at conversations.

"Thanks for saving me out there. I was sure I was going to die."

Gailen snorted. "Well, I wouldn't be too grateful yet."

I smirked at this cheeky Turian. He managed to be awkward, skilled, cynical, and funny all at the same time. "In any case, you helped me back there."

He just kept cleaning his gun. "Hows than wound of yours?"

It was my turn to be nonchalant. "Pretty good." I shrugged.

He eyed me with some interest. He was probably sizing me up, if he hadn't already. "You know, you fight pretty good for a civilian. You get lessons?"

I shook my head. "All self taught. My mother doesn't like fighting." I cringed. "Didn't like fighting." A thick moody silence descended after that. I shuffled my feet back and forth, and Gailen wiped off his gun. I hated it, so I pretended to be cheerful. "What made you join C-Sec, anyways?"

He gave me a look that said, R_eally? You're asking that right now,_ and sighed. "I was saved by a Turian Commander that was in C-Sec. He told me to clean myself up, and I did. I joined after that." He shrugged. "I get to help people, keep some off the streets, and I get paid for it. Clears my conscience." I nodded. Seemed reasonable enough. C-Sec had always seemed pretty legit to me, no matter what Garrus said about it. Yeah it had some red tape issues, but it was doing good in the long run. Suddenly, Gailen pushed himself up, holstering his shiny sniper rifle. He held out his hand for me and I pulled myself up. "We should get moving. The consort's chambers aren't far."

"I agree." We jumped out of the tube and swam-walked along the side of the reservoir until we found an access ladder. He helped me up after he had _made sure_ there were no Geth. The steaming Presidium seemed to me like a ghost town, and I wondered how long it would take before it's shattered facade of safety would be repaired again. We walked, guns up, through the smoke towards the consort's chambers. A loud boom resonated above and I froze. How much of an idiot had I been? All this time I had been on the Presidium during the _Battle of the Citadel _and I hadn't thought to look _up!_ So I did. "Gailen."

"What?" The Turian asked, annoyed.

"Gailen. Gailen, look up." He did. A part of the 'sky' had been blown out, and the stasis fields, _thank the goddess,_ had kept the atmosphere in. But it wasn't that that intrigued me. Through it you could see the arms of the station, closed shut but glowing a beautiful shimmering gold color that illuminated empty space, well, almost empty. Sovereign had engulfed the tower and many Alliance and Turian ships were buzzing around it like bees around a meddling bear. Which, I suppose, Sovereign could be compared to. I knew all of this was going to happen, but seeing all of the ships _ in person_ and the bright bursts of ship cannons and of the occasional unlucky ship whose shields had just not been enough to protect it from the galaxy's most ancient and primeval terror, was something to change a person. I could feel it changing me, awakening some of the Maiden adventure in my heart. I craned my neck, searching for _the_ ship. I thought, though it could have been my blood deprived body, that I had seen, for just a second, the sparkling hull of the _Normandy, _as it shrieked through space punching holes in the scout Reaper, and doing crazy maneuvers—no doubt the handiwork of Mr. "Joker" Moreau. I was satisfied, after that. Satisfied with what ever may come next, for I had seen the ship that would deliver the final blow against Sovereign, die, be born again, be the emissary for the hope of the galaxy, and lead the last battle for freedom at Earth. I had seen the conqueror of devils, and I _knew then,_ my new purpose for my life here. I would conquer _my _devils, and, like Shepard, I would _win._ If only for the sake of my dear mother, who had given her life for mine. My life would mean something from this point forward. I would be sure of that. Gailen pulled me away from my rapture on the premise that we should get moving. He was right, of course, but I still didn't want to leave. We hurried to the Consort's chambers, and made it. There were no other Geth around here, strangely. We were greeted by many other C-Sec officers that had almost shot us when we had come in too fast. They were glad to see him, and a survivor. None of the others had come back. Gailen led me to the back, where many frightened whites of eyes looked up at me as I entered. Some of them looked okay, some were badly injured, but all had lost someone. I could see it in their eyes. I was among that number, I noted. I was alone. Well, maybe not _all_ alone. Gailen pulled me aside and sat me down on a couch with a med-kit. He pulled the heavy purple cloth away from my skin, and I had to look away. My stomach was ripped apart, pretty much. How had I been able to walk like this? I remembered a story about the mind blocking pain receptors when you were in danger, in order to help you get out of danger, but to experience it was another thing. That would mean that the pain would be kicking in any second now.

"Well, on the bright side, the bullet went all the way through, so I don't have to dig it out." I glared at him.

"Thanks for the good news." I grunted wryly. He just chuckled.

"Here, I'll put some Medi-gel on both sides, and you should be pretty good from there, all though, I would recommend you rest. You lost a lot of blood."

I laughed now, ignoring the pain it sent through me. "You kidding me Gailen? As soon as I can get up, I'm gonna grab my gun and make sure those guys up front aren't slacking off!"

He applied the cold gel to my stomach and I winced with an intake of breath. "You'd make a good C-Sec officer yourself, Teleya." He lifted me up slightly, to get my back, but then put me back down gently. He packed up the kit and stood up. "Well, I should get back out there. There could still be people who need my help."

I nodded sadly. "Alright, but be careful! You better not die on me, Gailen!"

He saluted. "Yes ma'am!" He started to walk away, but turned back as if on a second thought. "Here, I want you to have this." He held out his squeaky-clean sniper rifle. "I won't be needing it on rescue missions, and it'll help you guard the entrance." I gaped at it. It was a Mantis, one of my favorites. I held it carefully in my hands.

"You sure, Gailen?"

He nodded. "Positive. Just watch her till I get back."

It was my turn to salute. "Yessir!" He chuckled and shook his head.

"See you later, Teleya." I watched his retreating back, feeling I should say something more, but not finding the words. Maybe I would have them by the time he got back...

...and heaven knows I should, because I would have close to a thousand years to find them.

**_Yay! The end of my first real chapter! Please review, even if it's just one word. A 'Brilliant', 'Good', 'Bad', or 'Stupid' is all that I need to make me happy!_**


	3. Chapter 2: The Dream

_**I really want to thank Luna-Zeta and tmd126 for reviewing. It means a lot to get feedback, guys!**_

_**Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own ME. Or Cardassians. **_

About Two Years Later

Like a rock slamming into the ground from unimaginable heights, reality slammed down on me, forcing my eyes open and my body up as I emerged from my nightmare as I did from icy water. Only I was anything from cold. Sweat drenched my body, even under my threadbare covers. Gasping, I threw them aside and swung my feet over so they hung over the side of my small bed. Images filled my mind, and I tried desperately to stop them, shaking my head to throw them off. They were too ingrained in my being. It was hard to imagine anything taking them away. I put my head in my hands and slid them back until they were on the back of my neck, my head lolling forward and my back arching. It was still hard to get used to the tiny ridges under my tentacles. Heck, it was hard to get used to the tentacles! Without permission, the images came back. Broken body, drooping hand, missing arm...I squeezed my eyes shut to try and block them out, but that only made it worse, so I snapped my eyes open. The voices stopped, the blood came off my hands, and the screaming had faded into the eerie silence that permeated my lonely apartment. Pale fingers of light trickled across the silver deck plating, casting long shadows that looked too much like...No! I shoved my body up stalking to the window, on whom I placed my shaking hands. I glanced up at the 'sky', and its 'stars' and 'moons'. The night cycle didn't stay near as long as I'd prefer, but I had sluggishly shortened my sleeping hours long ago. I narrowed my eyes and peered down on the empty Presidium, knowing that if I stayed at the window for forty minutes, I would end up seeing a C-Sec security officer. It took about that long to patrol around this section. After the Geth attack, they _had_ tightened security. "Be Alert, Be Safe!" I muttered with a sarcastic smile. Actually, I spotted an officer coming around the corner now. That unmistakable jaunt, and the way he held his gun. I grinned. I waited until he was almost under my window, his black shadow of a form pausing and gazing around the sleeping Presidium. Even with it's hub of politics and trading, The Presidium was not a 'city that never sleeps.' "Hey! Buzzie!" The startled Turian looked up, training his gun on me instantly. I didn't even bat an eyelash. "Havin' fun working graveyard?"

He blinked. "T'Leri? Wha-Why are you up?"

I shrugged and replied in a voice saturated with sarcasm. "I just couldn't wait to scare you into fillin' your pants, Buzz."

He chuckled, and twitched his gun. "Careful, Bluebird. _I'm_ the one with the gun."

I threw my head back and laughed. "Like you could even hit me from there!"

His mandibles twitched. The subject of his marksmanship was a touchy one, given I had beat him _many _times. "...I guess I set myself up for that one, Blue. Really though, why are you up?"

I shook my head. "Everyone has their demons, Syrran, and mine didn't feel like sleeping." My use of his real name conveyed the seriousness behind what I had just said. There was a long pause and I could practically feel his mind working.

Then, out of the darkness, he spoke. "Well, I could use some company down here. Grab your gun."

I grinned. I _needed_ to get out of this apartment. I nodded and pushed away from the window, calling behind me, "Be right there!"

The fake wind of the night-time Presidium rustled the Asari aru trees. The aru was an Asari fruit slightly similar to a plum, but sweeter and lighter. They also bore beautiful blossoms in the 'spring' that I was greatly looking forward to. However, the simulated 'summer' of the trees, as well the ersatz night, made the leafy limbs dance, eerily quiet as if afraid of angering the silence by breaking it. The spectral branches danced wickedly on the unearthly night, as if for a lover, flicking its delicate leaves out into the spotted 'starlight' and turning them briefly into fluttering silver dollops; the effect was disturbing. Several cataracts of quicksilver blood shone, palpitating in the unquiet 'night'. The chilling display was lost on Buzz, who sauntered forward at a normal pace. I caught up with him quickly, flicking my gaze around shiftily into the pockets of unmoving dark. He glanced over to me. "Hey, Blue? You alright? You look a second away from suspecting me of conspiring murder."

I laughed nervously and wrung my hands in a vaguely Tali manner. "I'm being as cautious as a Cardassian, aren't I?" I wiped a hand across my face. He shot me a funny look and I ignored it. _Right. No Cardassians here._ "I mean," I stammered on, "everything looks so different in the dark."

He shook his head. "You sure you're okay? That dream you had really did a number on you. Wanna talk about it?"

"No!" I squeaked. Then I sighed. "Yes..." By the way his mandibles twitched, I knew I had his full attention. "It was...the attack. When the Geth attacked." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "I tried my best, but there were too many. My mother, was killed. A Turian officer, Gailen, saved me, and helped me get to a safe zone established by C-Sec. He patched me up, gave me his sniper rifle for 'safe keeping'," I patted the rifle on my back, "-and went off to look for more survivors." I narrowed my sapphire eyes. "He didn't come back." I closed my eyes and shook my head. "At least...not in one piece." Syrran shook his head. He knew what it meant to lose good men—he was a Turian. "He was the reason I joined C-Sec." I said in a curiously high pitched voice. "Funny thing was," I growled cynically, "it wasn't the Geth that put a guy like him down. Shrapnel. _Flying. Shrapnel. _I balled my fists up. "I've accepted his death, Buzz, but not...what I saw." The images came back to me like I was seeing them again, in person, and I must've stumbled backwards. I tried to shut them out. Streacher. Gailen. Shattered armour. Missing an arm. Blood _everywhere. _ I run forward, clutching at his remaining arm. 'NO! You promised!' Pulling me back, crying. Look at my hands, blood on them. "Blood on my hands!" I cried. A frantic shaking pulled me out of my reverie. I looked into the eyes of Buzz.

"T'Leri?" He gasped. "T'Leri, can you hear me?" I blinked. I nodded. He helped me up. What had that been? It was like...it seemed like a Drell memory trance thing. I shook my head. Why did that have to happen? Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him, torn apart. Dead. Lifeless. _Bloody._ A soft voice whispered in my ear and I sighed.

"I exist there." I murmured. I wiped a hand across my face. "Buzz, I'm gonna get some sleep. I...thanks for listening."

His eyes widened. "You sure? You want me to walk you home?" I shook my head. I needed to be alone. I needed to think. I needed to write a letter. I needed _closure._

"I'll be fine, Buzzie. See you at shift change in the mornin'." I drifted away after that, past the flaming silver wraiths and trying to pretend I didn't see a certain Turian C-Sec officer tailing me home.

* * *

The quill pen trembled in my hand as I lowered it towards my parchment paper. _Yes, _the items had been extremely difficult to procure and, _yes, _it was a bit melodramatic, but I was a nerd, and nerds have ways of doing things different from most humans, or Asari. I sucked in air and started to write, knowing that every word, once written, could not be taken back. I didn't know why I was doing this, but something had told me that it would help.

_Dear Weania, my mother, _

_ I don't know why I'm doing this, because you're dead, but I guess it's because there are so many things I wanted to say to you, and I need to get them out. You were kind to me, and you helped me when I asked stupid questions that I ought to know, and you were patient and kind, like love itself. I'm sure you noticed the change in me, and I wished I could have told you who I really was, but I was afraid that you wouldn't have accepted me. Now I see, that you would have. I mean, I don't know what actually happened to your daughter, but I'm not her. Thanks for all those home __cooked meals, and old stories that I had known about, but hadn't felt. You __taught me how to be me. You helped me be the woman I needed to be. You were accepting of my training, though I knew you didn't approve, but you saw how much I enjoyed it, and were happy because of that. Thank you for teaching me how to meld minds, and showing me all of those cleaning tricks with biotics! It was like having the force...though you don't...know what that is...Anyway, on that night, you saved me. You saved my life. I tried to save yours, mother, I really tried. Gailen...he did too. I hope you weren't angry, I hope you didn't blame me, and I hope it didn't hurt. I just...wanted you to know that. I mean, I know you know but I've always felt guilt about that. I think...I think you would tell me not to feel that way, but is that just wishful thinking?I don't know...but I wanted to write this down, write how I felt down and...I feel better...I think. I love you, have always loved you, and will always love you, dear mother of mine...sleep well in the embrace of the goddess... _

_ -Your daughter Teleya T'Leri, and her ghost, Jane Wolfe._

I folded the letter neatly and brought close to me the envelope I was to put it in. I felt the small sheet of paper in my hands once more, before slipping it in and placing it in the drawer. I took out another piece of parchment and dipped the tip of my pen in the inky black...well...ink.

_Dear Gailen,_

_ I only knew you for a short while, but, as cheesy as it sounds, I feel like we had known each other for ages. You saved my life, helped me and inspired me. I'm in C-Sec now, because of you. It's like your story about the Commander who saved you. I thought it ironic. I hope I don't die by shrapnel like you...I think you'd appreciate that joke, but...I...You promised you'd come back, and I thought you would. It's not like we were really that close, but you were the closest thing I had to a friend then, the only one who might care about me, and who I cared about...when you came back to me, you were...bloody. Missing things you really shouldn't have been missing...and I ran to you, got blood on my hands...I suppose you did come back to me, in the end, just like you promised. It just wasn't like I thought it was going to be. One heck of an assumption, huh. You...you haunt me every time I close my eyes. Like the 'prophets' would say...i exist in that moment, because I never left your side in spirit. I'm still there. Help me let go of you! You would be appalled at my behavior if you saw me like this __now. You'd tell me to shape up and do my duty, wouldn't you? Well, I'm not __a Turian...I'm not even Asari...I miss you. I wonder what would have happened differently if you hadn't died...but that is the nature of life...always wondering. People say that cops join the force because they couldn't save someone. I guess my someone would be you, or my mother. I dunno...I still have your sniper rifle! She's in good condition, and she always will be. I've learned to use her real well. I'm probably better than you were! I've beaten a Turian officer I know more than once. I just, hope that you are in peace, where ever you are, Gailen. You died a warrior's death, and your honor will be remembered for centuries. I'll make sure of it!_

_ -Teleya T'Leri_

I sighed. It had made me feel better, getting it all off my chest, even if I knew no one would ever read it. But only slightly better. I still didn't want to go to bed. I plopped myself onto the mattress and reached behind me, under my pillow. I felt around until my fingers hit the sleek, metallic surface of my data pad. I pulled it out and held it over my head, scrolling down to my books and chewing on my lip while I decided which one I wanted to read. In the end, I chose to read the novelization of Fleet and Flotilla. When I had found it, I had been elated, wanting to see the movie since I had first learned of it's existence from a lovesick Turian. However, I had no one to see a movie with, hence my excitement over the book. I focused most of my time on training, so little of it was left to read. I was a little obsessed with my biotics, after the attack. I wanted to be better. I opened it, and told myself I would only read about a chapter or so.

Twelve chapters later, I ended the book, eyes bleary and work just hours away. I checked the date on my pad. Suddenly, I pushed myself up with one arm, not believing what I saw. It was _past_ the date. It was past two years since the report of the _Normandy's _demise. How had I missed it? It had been a few days ago, sure, but I always checked the date, and I had been waiting for this for forever. My exhaustion banished, I leaped out of bed. I threw the doors to my closet open and pulled out my uniform, pulling my night clothes off and pulling it on in seconds. I tapped the panel on the door to my small bathroom and it slid open. I washed my face and brushed my teeth. The best thing, by far, about being Asari, aside from the biotics, was the fact that you didn't have to do your hair in the morning. I looked at the clock. It was o'five hundred, and the day cycle had long since started. I was about an hour ahead of my usual schedule, but I figured I could just walk to work today. I made scrambled eggs and sat down at the little table to eat. It was a table made for two. I glanced into the other room. My mother's old room. They had fixed the apartment, and given it back to me after the attack. I almost wish they hadn't. It was lonely, looking into that empty room. All mementos of my mom were gone. I had put them away. I didn't want to pretend she was still here. All that was left in her room was an empty bed and an equally spartan dresser. It was now a 'guest' room. Funny, I didn't have any guests.

When I had finished my eggs I put the plate in the decontaminator, grabbed my gun, and headed down the steps of my apartment building. The Presidium was very beautiful, filled with diversity. It was interesting seeing the groups of different aliens in some in-depth conversations, and funny listening to some of them. I _actually _heard one person ask if there were fish in the lakes. I cracked up so hard after that, and the Salarian who had said it gave me a funny look. I just shook my head and went on. It took awhile to get to the Zakera Ward from my apartment, and I had misjudged my time. I ended up having to run through the alleys of the ward to get to the my department head—Commander Bailey. I was soo lucky to get him, but I knew how pissed he was going to be if I was late. He hated people being late. I pushed past people who angrily grunted after me, but I paid them no mind. I bowled into the office and clocked in right as the clock turned. "Miss the transport?" Said Bailey's rough voice behind me.

I turned around and gave him my trademark smirk. "Something like that, Sir." I gasped between breaths. He nodded, and then started giving out assignments for the day. "Rojenko, I want you and your partner on patrols. Donovan, your team can check out the lead from the gamin' shop, and Roland? I want you up top. The Presidium force is stretched a little thin as of late." I winced. A few of their officers had been killed in an explosion from a runaway cascade in the system computer. Heckova way for a C-Sec officer to die. "Off you go." Charlie, a human on Donovan's team, gave me a worried look as he turned away. I hadn't been called, which meant I was probably going to be chewed out for almost being late. The other officers left me with Bailey. I turned to him, confused.

"Sir?"

He turned away from his pad and looked up at me. "T'Leri. We have a criminal that needs interrogation in Room 6. You have more psychobabble in your head then anyone on this shift, and I want you to take a crack at em'. I have to attend a meeting with Councilor Undina."

I winced. "Sorry, sir."

He chuckled. "That guy reminds me why I hate politicians. Anyway, you up for it?"

I nodded. "Yessir." I updated my pad on the guy in Room 6. Petty Criminal and informant for a larger threat. We didn't need _him_, but his higher ups. I just hope I could get the names. I shook my head. _At least it isn't Mouse. If it was, I could always just pull up Thane's name and scare the crap out of him. _I keyed the long key code into the door and walked in, making a show of locking it behind me. "Mr. Jackson." I stated walking behind his restrained form, so he couldn't see me.

"The name's Gremlin!" He growled, pulling at his restraints.

I rolled my eyes. "Well then, Gremlin, I know that you can point me towards who hired you. We want him, not you."

"I won't tell you anything."

I sighed. I came around next to him and put a gentle hand on his arm. I tried to look harmless. "Gremlin, you don't have to go to jail. You don't have to take the fall for this man. He's a bad man. Why do this? Spend good years of your life in jail for a man who certainly won't repay you for it."

He clenched his jaw. "If I rat him out, he'll repay me that's for sure! The man can do stuff, even in jail! You don't understand, I can't tell you." It went on like this for hours, and I finally had to leave the room before I punched the guy. I stormed over to the computer to tried and eek out more information on him. I smiled. That might be useful.

"No luck?" Came Bailey's voice. I shook my head.

"Not yet Commander." My eyes danced over the sentences, trying to separate good data from bad data. I heard the door from the docking port open, but ignored it. Bailey could deal with the lost tourist.

"You'll have to make him scream a little, lieutenant." Said Bailey. "I can do it for you if you don't want to."

"No." I shook my head. "I'm this close to convincing him. I'll use force if necessary, but I'm not yet convinced it is." I added a quick _Sir_ as an afterthought. _Jackpot!_ I think I had the right data. Now to use it. I turned around quickly and dashed off to my interrogation room. I barreled straight into someone. "Sorry!" I started to apologize before I could see who it was. I looked up to see the face of Jacob Taylor. "Sorry." I said again. "I didn't mean to." Oh. My. Gosh.

"It's alright, ma'am, no harm done." He smiled at me. He really was nice when you got to know him. But if he was here, that meant Shepard was too. SHEPARD! SHE WAS HERE! Or he, I reminded myself moodily. I glanced over to Baliey's desk. It was fem-shep! YESH! With dark brown hair. I couldn't see her face, obviously, but she had green and gray armor and a sniper rifle. So, either soldier or infiltrator. Miranda was giving me a suspicious stare, so I gave Jacob a polite nod and unlocked and entered the interrogation room.

"Soo, Gemlin. I'm back from my break." He ignored me. I could see his resolve was almost broken, but I needed something more to break it fully. I was all hyped up after seeing Shepard. "You know who I just saw?" Maybe establishing friendly dialogue would loosen him up. "Commander Shepard. As in the dead Commander Shepard. I don't know how she got here, but she did. The hero of the Citadel." As expected, his lip twitched. "Although I don't know why they call her that. So many people still died." He turned his head to glare at me. I leaned on the wall and smiled sadly at him, not having to fake that. "You know, you must be wondering what an Asari is doing in C-Sec. Well, I joined for my mother, after the Geth attack. She was killed. I couldn't save her, and I wanted to do better, and be better for her. To make her proud, you know." He was now looking at me intently, a strange look coming on his face. "My mother was my world. All I cared about was what she thought of me and how I made her proud." I felt tears fill my eyes and let them come, knowing that the show would make me look sincere. I was sincere. "I wonder what she would think of me know. If she would approve of what I'm doing, you know." Then all at once, the man burst out in tears. A grown man. I smiled slightly for a second, then went back to sad looking. I walked over to him. "I'm gonna get you out of those restraints, but if you try anything, I can throw you across the room with the twitch of my finger." He nodded, sobbing like a child. I unlocked them, and helped him sit up. I sat next to him, putting an arm around his shoulder comfortingly. "There there, Gremlin."

"That's not my name!" He wailed. "I'm Jackson! Seth Jackson."

"Alright Seth. What's wrong?" I tried to sound motherly.

"My mom! She was killed by Geth and I ran away!" _Check._ "She would hate to see what I'm doing. She would hate me!" _Check Mate._

"Seth, it isn't to late to do something. What would your mom want you to do? She would want you to help us catch some really bad guys, wouldn't she."

He nodded and sniffed. "Yeah, yeah I guess...I'll give you the names."

I smirked. "Will you? Oh thank you, Seth. Your mother would be so proud." He started wailing again and I rolled my eyes.

I stalked out of the room and over to Bailey, holding the datapad in the air like a trophy. "Here you are, Commander!" I held it out for him. "And without a bruise on his body." I smiled happily.

He nodded approvingly, looking over the names. "Impressive." I felt I had achieved something, even if most of my sanity was now worn away.

"It is impressive, lieutenant." Came a very recognizable voice to my left. I turned into the face of Commander Shepard. She had tan skin and gray eyes, and she was beautiful. Her scars were already starting to disappear. Paragon. With a jolt, I realized she was my Shepard. Seeing her in real life was amazing! I felt like I couldn't breath for a moment, but bit my tongue hard to distract myself from all of the awesomeness. "I'm glad no one had to get hurt." She gave Bailey a pointed look, to which he just shrugged. Ha! She had given him a hard time about beating prisoners! She looked back at me. "Keep up the good work."

I nodded, smiling. She was talking to me! "Of course, Commander."

She raised an eyebrow. "Does everybody know who I am?"

I laughed. She just had this charm about her, and even knowing how amazing she was, i was put at ease in her presence. "Well, you're so famous. I'm sure everyone could recognize you."

She smiled. "Well, I'm afraid I'm at a disadvantage, Lt...?"

My eyes widened. Commander Shepard was asking for my name!? "Uh..." I stammered. "Lt. Teleya T'Leri."

She nodded and turned back to Bailey. "You should give this girl a promotion, Commander." She nodded to me and then went through the door back to the Normandy. Miranda glared at me, while Jacob smiled. I turned to Bailey, who was silent, stunned.

"Well, Commander, You heard what Shepard said!" I gave him a cheeky smile.

He scowled at me. "Get back to work and track down those names." I chuckled.

_**Thanks for reading everyone! Um, I'm new, so I was wondering, do you have to do a disclaimer at the beginning of every chapter or am I just making myself look stupid? Also, if anyone has tips on fleshing out characters or how I might write Kolyat when the time comes, I would be grateful! Our little Drell is in the next chapter!**_


	4. Chapter 3: The Loyalty Mission

_**I have been doing nothing but writing lately, so you guys get another chapter! We get to see Kolyat finally! HOORAY!**_

_**Also, thanks again tmd126 and to Pikahopp for reviewing!**_

_**Disclaimer: Still Don't Own ME**_

One Week Later

Bullets whizzed around me in all directions but, magically, didn't hit me as I dove for cover behind a crate. I no longer cursed their omnipresence in Mass Effect, but utilized it. I gathered my remaining biotic power and draped it around me like water swirling around the lowest point. I took a deep breath and jumped up. "AARGH!" I shouted as I pushed a wall of biotic energy at the four thugs. It slammed into them and tossed them like rag dolls into the wall. The Turian and the two Humans didn't get up, but the Krogan did, and he wasn't happy. Clutching his shotgun, the mad warrior charged the trainee on my watch. My eyes widened and my adrenaline surged behind some foreign motherly instinct. From some well deep inside me that I didn't know existed I drew up even more energy. I threw it behind me and I shot forward like a jet. I barreled straight into the charging Krogan from the side, and our competing momentum propelled us forward diagonally, where we tumbled across the floor. I tried to push myself up, but my muscle's weren't working. My trainee, bless her soul, was probably trembling behind cover. I managed to get myself onto my elbows, but when I looked up, the Krogan was standing above me. He looked shaken and weak, if that was even possible for a Krogan, but he was on his feet. _Curse Krogan regen! _I hissed in my mind. He laughed at me in a deep, bloody voice and kicked me hard in the stomach. I tried to form a barrier but any energy I had possessed had been used up. Small tendrils of energy trembled around me like little fingers of water being drawn up, but they fell back down in a splash and then disappeared, and I was left rolling over in pain. I glared up at his grinning face and growled, "You have no honor, Qovpatlh!" He snorted and lifted up his gun and I braced myself for, what, exactly? I didn't know. But I would soon. Shots were fired, but not at me. The Krogan had turned angrily to my right and started to move there, but another blast of bullets put him down. Desperate to see who it was (my trainee had a heavy pistol, not a submachine gun), I clutched the top of a crate, pulling myself up, and slipping more than once. My forearms rested on the top of the crate but my head was still down. It took an immense effort to lift my head up, as my neck seemed to be made of jelly, but when I did, all exhaustion seemed to fade. My blue eyes were looking into the dark ones of a Drell. A Drell with a narrow face and teal scales. Kolyat. He was looking at me intently, but also warily. _Well, duh. He's going to try to kill someone and he's looking at a C-Sec officer._ "Thank you." I whispered. He blinked, as if unsure what to say. I heard the footsteps of my trainee rushing towards me.

"Oh, are you okay? Teleya! I am so sorry! I just froze up when he was charging me!" She helped me up and I looked up to where Kolyat had been a second ago, but he was gone. _Crap! Are Drell born with the ability to disappear suddenly into thin air!?_ I looked up to my trainee, a small human girl with blond hair and blue eyes, which were wide with shock.

"Yeah." I grunted. "Maybe the front lines aren't the best place for you. Maybe you can try Intelligence or something." She winced and nodded.

* * *

I stalked into Bailey's office, a scowl on my face and a limp in my step. "Hey, Kid? You okay?" I growled in reply and leaned heavily on the counter, giving a glare in return to his concerned gaze.

"First off, I'm over 200 years older than you, and second, No. No I'm not okay. Let's just say that my trainee needs to be transferred to Medical or Intelligence or something."

He winced. "That bad."

I nodded grimly. "Yup. I took down three of the thugs myself, and barreled straight into a charging Krogan, who kicked my in the stomach, and almost shot me."

"Well, what did your trainee do?" Bailey asked.

I shrugged. "Nothing. She froze up. I would've been toast if a passerby hadn't gunned the Krogan down."

He snorted. "A passerby? Who was he?"I blinked. Should I tell him about Kolyat? I mean, what if Shepard wasn't in time, time here wasn't like time in the game, where the order you did things didn't matter...Luckily, I didn't have to entertain that thought long, because the Commander herself walked right in the door. "Commander!" Bailey said amicably. "Good to see you haven't been killed by mercs."

Shepard snorted and shared a glance with Thane. I nearly swooned. My Shepard always romanced Thane. Garrus was just a friend and Jacob...well, he's nice, but he's damaged goods. Really damaged goods. "Believe me. They've tried." I nodded absently. Nearly every recruitment or loyalty mission had mercs in them. Bleh. "Nice to see you again, Lt. T'Leri."

I smiled and bowed my head slightly. "Likewise Commander, and it's Lt. Commander now."

She smiled and looked to Bailey. "Good to hear." Thane looked at me, and I had to fight a mental war between ducking my head down or smiling at him. _Thank the goddess _I smiled. He inclined his head politely. Garrus was behind him and nodded to me in acknowledgment.

"Well, what are you after. People as busy as you don't just pop up to say hi." Bailey surmised correctly.

Shepard crossed her arms and stepped back. "Well, Bailey, you're right. I'm looking for a Drell who might've come here recently." _Time to say something,_ I thought.

"Wait, did you say a Drell?" Shepard looked towards me and nodded, and I also attracted Thane's gaze. I tried not to sound stupid. "Well, um, this morning I was in a fight with some thugs, and the last one was a Krogan who rushed me, and he would've killed me, but someone shot him. I didn't know who would be near the alley. When I looked up I saw a Drell, probably as tall as you, sir." I nodded to Thane. "He had teal scales and a narrow face. Is that who you're looking for?" Shepard looked to Thane, who paused before nodding.

"That was Kolyat."

Shepard turned back to me, standing up straight. "Anything else?" I paused, should I reveal anything else? I mean, why not? Bailey was just going to tell them, so why shouldn't I instead.

"Well, I can't be sure but..." I hesitated. "I think...I think I saw him talking to Mouse."

"Mouse?" Came Thane's interjection. I nodded, letting Bailey explain.

"Former duct rat, petty criminal. If your Drell was looking for work, he might've gone to him."

"What's a duct rat?" Asked Shepard.

"It's a nickname for the poor kids who live on the Citadel. They play around in the ventilation ducts where adults can't reach them."

Shepard's eyes widened. "Isn't that dangerous?"

I interjected, eyes downcast. "Yes..." I murmured. "Every once and awhile you pull a little body out of the ducts. Maybe shredded by the fans, or suffocated by an opening of an airlock..." I shook my head. "It's always horrible when you find one."

Bailey kept going. "Mouse was smart enough to survive long enough until he couldn't fit in them anymore. Either that or he was lucky."

I bit my lip, having met Mouse once or twice. "I'd bet on the latter." I murmured. My mind was in another place. I remembered back to when I had gotten my first body...it had been...let's just say I was glad to not have a Drell's memory.

"Where did you last see Mouse?"

I shrugged. "By the Warehouse."

The Commander nodded. "Thanks for the information, you two."

I smiled and nodded. "Glad to be of any help."

"Come back if you need any help." Bailey returned to his computer.

* * *

I returned from my submitting of my trainee's transfer form. She was not my trainee any more, thank the prophets. I turned the corner to see Bailey. He was trying to stall Kelham's lawyer. He was walking away though, towards the interrogation room, and Shepard wasn't out yet. I smirked. This would be fun. I pulled out my pistol and pretended to not see the lawyer. I ran into him, nearly knocking him back. "OOOPS!" I cried. "SORRY!" I waved the gun around, almost right in his face. "I'm new here! I haven't seen you around." I fired a shot, and it hit the ground, right next to his foot. "OOPS!"

"You're crazy lady!" He shouted, holding his hands up and backing up.

"WHAT!" I pretended to throw a tantrum. Blue energy enveloped me and I stamped my foot and threw back my arms. I sent out a tendril and threw him up, and he hit the ceiling and then came crashing down. Not enough to hurt him, but enough to scare him. He shoved himself up and pointed a finger at me.

"Do you have any idea what I am, lady?"

Before he could throw in the lawyer card, I smirked, as I heard the interrogation room door open behind me. "Gullible." His face fell as he saw Shepard and Thane exit from his clients room.

He ran towards them. "Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you're going to be in!" He snarled at them.

Shepard crossed her arms and shrugged, while Thane just stopped and put his arms behind his back. "I don't know. How much trouble can you get a spectre in?" The man cursed and stalked off to his client, not really knowing what to say about that; it was above his pay grade. I just grinned at Shepard, who smirked back. She had seen the last bit of my performance. "Nice." I nodded to her.

"You get the information you need?" Asked Bailey.

She nodded. "Kolyat was hired by Kelham to kill a diplomat named Talid. Can you get me to where he is, fast?"

Bailey nodded, tapping away at his holographic keys. "Sure, T'Leri, can you go get them a priority cab? The 800 blocks." I nodded.

"Right away, follow me." I hurried down the walkway with Shepard jogging beside me, and Thane taking long strides behind. We reached the transport terminal and I started keying in the code for an emergency transport—faster than normal transport and usually only used in security work. "This will get you there a lot faster. Let's hope you get there before your son does something he'll regret."

Thane stepped forward. "How did you know that..." I noted the slight taste of suspicion in his voice.

I finished the sentence before he did. "How did I know that he's your son?" I smiled softly. "I can see the look in your eyes. It takes only a small amount of deduction to connect the pieces." I moved away from the console and smiled at them both of them. "Good luck." The transport wailed to a stop behind me. Shepard nodded to me, and Thane bowed slightly, before they entered the transport and screamed off towards Kolyat.

* * *

I tapped my fingers on the table in my trademark four-tap drumming that used to rile up my Whovian friends. I smiled at that. Memories from my old life were increasingly scarce these days. I looked up to Bailey, who was checking and rechecking his gun. I rolled my eyes. Who knew that Bailey had a quirk like that? He was all peaches and cream under fire, but the wait before a sting or a shootout was the thing that got to him; however, the only thing that would ever betray his state was his careful inspections of his gun. We were giving Shepard time, but we were going to roll in eventually. I knew that, not only from the game, but from working with Bailey. _Dag nabbit! I just lost the game..._It had been four weeks! Four weeks since I last thought of _The Game_, which is pretty impressive, considering I was living in one. I sighed and pushed myself up out of my criss-cross-applesauce position on the counter. "When are we going to do something? I hate just sitting here."

Bailey sighed. "You and me both kid, but I don't want to mess with Shepard's plan, whatever it is." I inwardly groaned at his use of 'kid' but let it go. I suppose in proportion with our projected lifespans, I would be a kid to him.

"I know, but we wouldn't have to interfere unless we absolutely had to. We could just be there in case Shepard needs a show, to convince Kolyat that he has no other options." Bailey seemed to contemplate my words for a moment before holstering his gun and nodding me, heading for the transport. I did a little in place gig and ran after him, not caring how unprofessional it was. I fell into step with him.

"You know, I'm glad you're my right hand man, kid." I smiled then, not caring what he called me at that point. No matter how many times he said kid, it was worth hearing the right hand man part. We got a transport, and then rode in silence, for the most part. "Lt., Do you have kids?" The question caught me off guard, and I blinked, gathering my wits.

"Ah, no. Not yet, at least." I did want kids but, well, when you're a loner, what's the chance of that? "You?"

He nodded, looking in the distance. "Let's just say I know how it feels to ruin a relationship with a son." I bit my lip and looked out the window, having to expend an almost physical effort to not call him, 'Commander Taylor'. We were silent after that, until we touched down. "Where do you reckon they went?" I retraced my mind map of Talid's movements.

"Well, if I was Shepard, I would be following Talid, to find Kolyat. Find the fish, and you find the fisherman. And if I were a anti-human diplomat, I would probably head this way. More asari and salarian and turian shops, as well as a bar that serves less humans and more everything else."

Bailey nodded. "Sounds like a plan." We walked in what I knew was Talid's path, passing groups of aliens talking about his campaign, further augmenting my confidence in my mind-map-making. We walked by a few bulkheads, and I spotted an incapacitated-and sniveling- krogan. Well, there's a first and a last for everything.

"Bailey! Look." He glanced at the krogan. "Bodyguard?" He nodded. Then, we heard a thud in the apartments to our right. We exchanged glances, nodded, and ran up the stairs. "Talid's apartment?" I queried.

"Yup." He stated gruffly, holding his gun straight down in straight arms as he rushed up the stairs. I followed suit, pulling out my trusty hand cannon. We saw Shepard through the open door, and came right in without an invitation. _Good thing we're not vampires...okaaaaay...random. _It seemed like we were a little later than in the game (_D__arnnit!) _as Shepard shot the vase behind Kolyat right as we walked in. She swiped his gun away and punched him in the face, making him stagger back. I thought I saw Thane wince, but the grimace was so quick that I couldn't be sure.

"Talid. Go." Shepard said gruffly. Not exactly like in the game, but it _would_ be different here. The next sentence didn't have just three options. The Turian got up and ran to the door. Before he could walk past me, I caught him in the arm, holding him there with a slightly harsh grip.

"Next time you think about being racist, Talid, you should remember the human that saved your life." He nodded, and I let go, letting him scurry off.

Bailey gave me a look, and I shrugged. "Take the boy into custody." I nodded and moved toward Kolyat, interested in what Shepard was going to say.

She stepped towards Kolyat. "Your father doesn't have much time left, Kolyat. He's trying to make up for his mistakes."

"What?!" Said Kolyat, looking to his father with some confusion and a healthy, or rather, unhealthy, dose of anger. "You came to get my forgiveness? So you can die in peace or something?" He waved his hand to his father in a frustrated manner. I cringed. I loved Thane, and Kolyat was being stupid. But, I guess, after everything that happened to him, it wouldn't really make sense any other way.

Thane walked to his son with love in his eyes, not caring what his son said to him, or how. I suspected that made Kolyat a little bit more frustrated. "I came to bring you peace." There was a 'what the crap' look on Kolyat's face. He was still angry, but listening now. Thane looked down, in a gesture of shame I thought unneeded in a man as noble as he. "You're angry because I wasn't there when you're mother died."

Kolyat pulled his lips back slightly, as if to snarl. "You weren't there when she was alive." _It's not like he liked it!_ I wanted to shout. "Why should you be there when she died!" I then thought to the feelings I had when I had lost my mother...and Kolyat had been younger. I couldn't imagine the pain...I mean I had known that I would never know my 'father', he was dead, but Kolyat...his dad had existed. He should have been there, but he hadn't been, and a little drell boy had to suffer all alone. The thought made me want to shout less.

Thane looked down again, and didn't speak for a long time. I looked to Bailey, and he looked to me. I felt tears in my eyes, and I knew he saw them. I didn't care if it was unprofessional, and I could see that this was having an effect on him too. I looked back to the two drell. "Your mother, they killed her to get to me. It was my fault."

Kolyat looked as if he had been punched by Shepard again. "What?"

Thane continued. "After her body was given to the deep, I went to find them. The trigger men, the ringleaders. I hurt them, eventually killed them. When I went back to see you, you were...older. I should have stayed with you." It was hard, seeing a man like Thane broken up like he was. He was full of so much regret. I hope Kolyat could see it too.

"I guess it's too bad for me you waited so long, huh?" Punch in face. I guess he couldn't see it after all, or maybe he didn't want to.

Thane thought a moment for his next words. _I'm not gonna cry, I'm not gonna cry, I'm not gonna cry._ This part always made me cry! "Kolyat I've taken many bad things out of this world; you are the only good thing I ever added to it." I could see a thin line of a tear snake down Kolyat's face. It was strange, saying that to someone who just tried to kill a man, but I suppose to a father, there is always room for good in a son. _Holy crap, I'm gonna cry! _I could feel the tears forming, and I was blinking rapidly to try to dispel them before they drew tracks on _my_ face. I probably looked like I was having a seizure.

Bailey stepped up. "This isn't a conversation you should be having in front of strangers. "T'Leri, take Kolyat and his father back to the precinct. Give them a room and as much time as they need."

"You got it, Captain." I winced. Not exactly a by-the-book reply, and my voice was a little scratchy, like it always was when I was fighting tears. Bailey didn't seem to care. Thane stepped forward and placed a hand on his son's shoulder, and Kolyat didn't pull away. I guess that was a start.

"I'm surprised you're letting them do that." Stated Shepard, trying to figure Bailey out.

"You think he's the only man who ever screwed up raising a son?" He looked down, and I detected some sadness in his voice. He was back to normal in a second, though. "I have to get back to the precinct. Come on, I'll give you a lift." They left, leaving me with Thane and Kolyat. Thane turned to me, a tear in his eye.

"Well, Lt. Commander. We're ready when you are." I smiled softly and inclined my head.

"Of course. Follow me, you two." I walked on, with them following, until I found the nearest transport terminal. I keyed in the code for a C-Sec priority transport, and turned to face the two drell while I waited. They were making no conversation now, and it was kind of awkward. "I wonder if we'll beat the Commander and Bailey. They have to walk farther, but they don't have to wait for a transport."

Thane blinked both eyelids at the same time. "I don't understand some individuals' need for unnecessary driving velocity in the goal of getting to a location faster than another."

I smiled and laughed. "It's fun! I dunno why, but it is. Bailey and I race all of the time. Just don't tell anyone. We're not supposed to."

Kolyat raised and eyebrow. "Why are cops breaking the law?"

I shrugged. "It's really just harmless fun. We know we're both good pilots and we can handle ourselves. Some laws, and when I say some I mean more than I should say, are really only there for idiots. If you know what you're doing, they really don't hold weight." Our transport arrived, and I opened the door, gesturing for them to go in. Thane took the back seat, oddly enough, leaving Kolyat to sit by me. We were halfway in our flight to the precinct when Kolyat spoke next.

"You were the woman who was being attacked by the krogan." It was more of a statement than a question.

I nodded. "Yup. Thanks for that, by the way. My trainee, bless her soul, froze up when the krogan charged her."

He chuckled, and I glanced over to him for a second. "I saw that. Then you tackled him down to the ground. It was pretty impressive."

"Is that why you stepped in?" I looked to his face. He paused for a small second.

"Yeah." He didn't say anything more on our way to the precinct.

* * *

"Gosh Dangit, Bailey! How'd you make it here before us." He laughed and shook his head, and Shepard smirked. I rolled my eyes and made my way over to the interrogation room. I tapped on the button and it turned green, and opened. "Voila! My favorite interrogation room!" I smiled at Thane and Kolyat as they entered, and then closed the door behind them.

"Teleya, I need you to take these reports up to the Presidium." I held back a grimace and took them.

"Yessir."

He laughed. "I know you hate the job when you respond like you're supposed to!" I rolled my eyes and gave him a one finger salute before going through the doors to the docking port.

* * *

I hurried back, keen to see the Commander off. I made it back in time for Bailey to mention the murders with a drell suspect.

"Ten years is a long time. Whoever's responsible for that probably doesn't exist anymore." Interjected Shepard.

"Besides," I chipped in, "it really isn't the assassin that does the killing, but the man who hired him." I knew though, that if it was Thane, it wasn't a contract that made him kill those people.

"Funny. Thane said the same thing." Shepard tipped her head to the side and appraised me.

"Really?" I said, tipping my head too. The door to the Interrogation room opened. Out came Thane. He walked slowly towards us, and stopped at Bailey's desk.

"How'd it go?" Shepard asked Thane.

He looked to her. "Our problems...they aren't something I can fix with a few words. We'll keep talking, see what happens." He shrugged.

"Time heals all wounds." I murmured softly, to no one in particular.

Thane turned to me. "I hope so, Lt. Commander."

"Your boy shot some people." Interrupted Bailey. "No one I feel sympathy for, but, there it is."

Shepard straightened up. "I watched those guys shaking down businesses and threatening humans."

Bailey kept going. "But you can't just get away with it."

"Kid want's to make a difference. Give him community service." Suggested Shepard.

I felt like talking. "Yeah, I think that's a good idea." All eyes turned to me. "We're short staffed. It would be nice to have another recruit, even just for patrols." I shrugged. "I mean, the boy has skills. He took down a krogan. Actually, he took down two. He saved my life."

Bailey looked torn. "Community service for attempted murder? What jury would agree to that?"

Shepard just shrugged. _Man, she's good at looking boss when she shrugs. _"None that I know of. This would need to stay strictly withing C-Sec."

Bailey stood up. "Interesting, I'll think about it." He shook hands with Thane.

"Thank you, Captain." Said the grateful father. He turned to me. "And to you, Lt. Commander." He held out a hand to me. I grinned ear to ear, happy to shake hands with my favorite Mass Effect 2 character.

"It was all I could do, and it was my pleasure." He nodded and turned away, standing by Garrus and waiting for the Commander. _Well, then, Garrus popped out of nowhere!_ The Commander walked up to me and held out her hand also.

"Pleasure working with you, T'Leri." I nodded and shook her hand. They left then. It was almost ridiculous-the fact that I had participated in my favorite loyalty mission, talked with Thane, and shook both his and Shepard's hands made me feel amazing! It was like a dream come true. I turned back to Bailey.

"What now, Captain?"

He shrugged. "Do you really think this is the best idea?"

I sighed, thinking about it. He had the potential to do good, I knew that. I suppose that was the most important thing. "Captain, I..." I bit my lip. Even after what the Commander had said, he was on the fence. What I said could sway him. This hadn't happened in the game. My presence here must be changing things. I was just a lieutenant before the Commander recommended I get promoted, for some odd reason I didn't know. After that, I was the second highest rank in the force, Bailey being the highest. He had taken me under his wing and now considered me a friend, and apparently, his 'right hand man'. He now had someone to give him an opinion that would be valued. I could change things, but why would I want to? Kolyat deserves another chance. He saved my life. "Second chances are not found often in this world of ours, as I'm sure you know, Bailey. Heaven knows I do...I'm not sure if it's the logical thing to do, but, I know, if I had the ability to hand out even one second chance, I would take it. Goddess knows there aren't enough. Besides, I can see good in him, Bailey. He...he can make a difference. Besides, we spent all day finding him, and I don't want it to go to waste." I finished the last part with a wry smile, to distract from the vulnerability I had shown in my opinion. He looked at me steadily for a long while, before turning to his computer and purposefully typing for a few minutes. I let him be. I was tired, anyway, and sitting on my perch for a few minutes felt good. He stopped typing and looked to me. "Sooo?" I asked, hopeful.

He sighed. "I trust you, Teleya. You've never steered me wrong." He looked up. "Go get the boy." I suddenly remembered that I had left Kolyat alone in that room for some time. I jumped up and ran over to it, unlocking it. He was leaning against the wall, looking at the floor. I walked in. "Kolyat?" I asked tentatively.

He looked to me. "What?" His tone was annoyed.

I bit my cheek. "Sorry I left you in here so long. We were trying to figure out what to do with you."

His gaze sharpened; he was interested. "And have you?"

I nodded. " I think so. Come on." He followed me out and we walked to the desk.

Bailey looked to us. "So, I've arranged for you to do some 'community service'. You'll be helping us patrol and monitor things, like any C-Sec newbie does. If it goes good, we'll go up from there. Who knows, you might get to help us fight some real crime in the Wards. You won't have to do a prison sentence, but you'll have to stay out of trouble." Kolyat nodded, and I could tell he was sincere. Bailey turned to me. "Well, T'Leri, it seems you recently transferred your trainee. You'll be needing a new one." My eyes widened. "Since you are confident in Kolyat's ability to do some good around here, I've assigned him to you. Show him the ropes, Lt. Commander."

I bit my lip, but nodded anyway. "Yessir." He smirked. _Mental facepalm._

"Now, you two report to me tomorrow morning at oh seven hundred. Do you have a place to stay, Kolyat?" It was a good question. He probably had planned to be off the Citadel by today.

"No, sir."

Bailey nodded. "I can arrange permanent residence for you, but I'm afraid it won't be ready until tomorrow."

The drell lowered his head, and then nodded. I bit my lip. _Goddess..._"I have an empty room at my place." Bailey gave me a look. I sighed, tired and frustrated. "I know it isn't exactly protocol, but neither is this, Captain. One night." He nodded, having seen my determined stare.

"Alright. See you bright and early. Dismissed." Kolyat and I walked to the docking port in awkward silence. This was going to be interesting...

_**:) Very interesting indeed...Coolio, another chapter done. YAY! Also, just wanted to let you guys know in case you found the beginning stupid, i'm not just gonna leave it at the assumption that my character is really good at wishing herself into games. That would be too easy...foreshadow...**_


	5. Chapter 4: The PB&J Sandwich

_**Okay, Fourth Chapter! Hope you enjoy! Oh, and thanks for reviewing again, tmd126.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own ME.**_

"Ta Da!" I spun around with my arms wide as I entered my apartment, leaving Kolyat to straggle in at his leisure. I looked back at him. "My humble abode." I swept myself down in a bow. I suppose I was using theatrics to hide my nervousness. He looked around, studying almost every detail. _And he'll remember all of it forever..._That thought made me wish I'd cleaned up a bit more.

"It's big." He spoke at last.

I shrugged. "It was for two people."

"Was?" He questioned.

Not keen to talk about my dead mother, I ignored the query and waved him to the guest room. "That's where you'll be sleeping." He nodded, accepting my question dodge, and walked across my apartment to the guest room, his boots thudding against the metal floor plating. I saw him toss his small bag on the bed (we had picked it up on the way here) and before he could close the door, I called to him. "Wait!" He slowly walked back into view and leaned on the door frame, raising his eyebrow as if to say, 'I'm waiting.' I bit my lip to avoid rolling my eyes. "When do you get up?"

"Early." He deadpanned.

I fake smiled at him, my eyes narrowing in the process. "Helpful. Have any preferences for breakfast?"

He just shrugged. Couldn't he tell I was trying to be nice? Wow I really wanted to punch him. I shrugged back and turned away. "What do you have?" Came his voice from behind. I looked back at him and inclined my head.

I walked into my small kitchen and rummaged through the contents of my cabinets and my refrigerator. "Let's see here...um, I have some cereal, milk, eggs, toast, butter, jelly, peanut butter, and some spaghetti noodle leftovers." I looked back to him and tipped my head to the side. He just gave me a blank look. "Right..." I sighed. "This is all human food..."

After a few more moments of a blank stare, he replied. "I'll just have what you have." For some reason, I found his reply ridiculously hilarious. I burst out in laughter and had to grip the counter to not fall over. When I could finally stand up straight, I looked at his face. He was really confused.

I waved a hand at him. "Nothing, it's nothing. The way you said that was just hilarious." It seemed my perception of hilarity was completely lost on the drell, who just shook his head and turned into his room.

"Goodnight." The way he said it had a note of finality in it, so much so that I probably wouldn't have disputed it even if I had wanted to.

"Night." I tried to convey through the panel door before it shut. I sighed. Kolyat was weird. Then I shrugged. Like I could judge someone for being weird...I was weird too! I stood there for a second, contemplating what I had done. I had invited a perfect stranger into my house to spend the night...it didn't sound quite as good when I thought it like that. I mean, it was the right thing to do! I had given shelter to someone I'm going to have to trust sooner or later (as my police partner) who would've otherwise had to scrounge for shelter. When I thought about it like _that,_ I felt a little better, like I wasn't going insane. I kicked off my shoes, and they landed sort of near the door. I grabbed some shorts and a tank top from my dresser and padded off to the bathroom.

Getting ready for bed in this world was also a ton easier, because I didn't have a retainer to worry about. When I was a human, I would have to clean my retainer with toothpaste every night before I put it on, because I hated how it tasted if you didn't. In this world, I had perfect, pearly white teeth. I didn't know if that was because of Teleya's dental diligence before me, or some pre-birth genetic manipulation, but I was betting on the latter. From the stories Weania had told me, I had pieced together a mental dossier on my body's former inhabitant. It seemed that she had been clumsy, shy, and forgetful, kind of like I had been, before I was Teleya. I had no idea how two identically docile personalities could have come together to form, well, whatever I was now. I finished brushing my teeth and getting dressed for bed, and I threw my dirty uniform in the hamper and slumped to my bed, where I plopped down. I was utterly exhausted. I had had other things on my mind up until now, and simply hadn't had time to think about how tired I was. However, a comfy bed is the _perfect _place to think about how tired you are. I snuggled under my covers and fell fast asleep, which was funny, considering I had a drell hit-man in my house. _Sigh. Former hit-man..._

* * *

Ghosts of sound drifted around me, losing pitch as they drifted away and gaining it as they came up on me. I could swear I _felt _a wisp of sound touch me, and as I twisted around to face it, I ended up dispersing a hand-like form of smoke that had been hovering in the vicinity of my shoulder. I bit my lip. What was this place? I couldn't remember...how did I get here? Soft whispers flooded in around me, and it was about that time that a dark forest with onyx fog trickled into my senses as well. Where had I seen this before? I started walking, in no particular direction at first. However, the voices were getting louder, and I altered my path to draw myself closer to them.

I strained my ears, hoping to catch a coherent word. _...still be people who need my help. _ I blinked. Moving closer, I caught more words. _Just watch her till I get back._ I gulped. Was that Gailen? I strained my eyes to look through the viscous, paralyzing fog. _Be careful, Teli. _I whipped around to see the voice behind me. The thicker fog closer to the ground rose up to create the hazy form of my mother. "Mom?" I gasped, taking a step towards her. _I saved you. _Her amorphous lips mouthed. A body of smoke moved through me, breaking up to accompany my state of existence in the forest, and then coming back together, taking the form of Gailen next to my mother. The ghostly figures smiled evilly. I didn't get much time to think of this, as they spontaneously burst into light. Small tendrils of flame licked at them, lapping up their forms. They screamed horribly as they burned into ash. I reached towards them, but my legs couldn't move. At first, I tried to move towards them, but as the fire headed towards me, I tried to run away. I couldn't. I screamed as the hot tongues cut into my ankles. _Let me out! OH GODDESS LET ME OUT! _

My eyes flew open, but weirdly, I didn't move. It had always bothered me when in Mass Effect 3, Shepard had just opened her eyes and sat there after her terrible nightmares, but I was doing the same thing. Then I remembered. It was Shepard's dream I had been having, with some small differences. I tried to forget it—that was always best with my nightmares. The scenes though, they didn't rest. They were burning, screaming in agony. The more I thought about it, the tighter strung my body was. Finally, I just pushed myself up with arm and put a clenched fist to my forehead with the other.

I heard a rustle to my left, and I reflexively snatched the gun under my left pillow and pointed it towards the kitchen. Kolyat was standing there. From the way he was holding himself, I thought that the rustle had probably came from him, as he had made a move to come towards me. Now, he was standing still, hands raised slightly. I sighed, pressing the side of the gun to my forehead. "I-I'm sorry, Kolyat. I forgot...forgot you were here." I bit my lip and shook my head. Heck of a way to start a relationship with your new trainee. There was a very awkward silence that drenched the air for quite awhile. It had occurred to me that Kolyat had probably been watching me sleep or something.

"I...You were...talking. I heard you. I didn't know if I should...wake you or not. You seemed troubled." He struggled with those words. He was incredibly uncomfortable. I slipped the gun back under the pillow and attempted to smile at him. I was all sticky and hot, like you were when you woke up after falling asleep at your bed in your day clothes. It was unbearable. I threw the covers off and padded over to the window. I wiggled my toes on the cold metal plating. Looking down, I moved my left foot over, and saw the steamy print it left behind that was quickly evaporating. Ugh.

"It's alright, Kolyat. I just had a nightmare. I have 'em all the time." I looked back at the drell, who had said nothing in reply.

He merely tipped his head to the side. "Night...mare?"

I furrowed my brow. I suppose it was a human term, maybe the drell had a different term for the same thing. Then, why hadn't the translator worked? "A bad dream. Like a memory. A vivid memory you have to endure over and over until..." My voice cracked then. I knew he would get the memory analogy. I looked down.

"I think I understand." Came his voice from the dark.

"I thought you would." I fiddled with the hem of my tank top.

"I thought asari didn't have such...vivid memory." That gave me pause. Asari? Oh, yeah...

"We don't...but dreams—nightmares—have a way of making us remember. It isn't a perfect memory, but it has a way of reminding you of the parts you'd really rather forget." I snatched my omni-tool from the nightstand and attached it to my wrist. I tapped it on, and it came to life, splashing the dark room in orange light. The time was oh four hundred, but I didn't want to go back to sleep. I closed my omni-tool and tossed it onto my bed. I opened up my dresser and pulled out my second uniform, a bra, and a new pair of underwear; the latter two items I wrapped in the former. "I'm just going to pop into the shower. You need to use the bathroom?" I only had one, you see.

He shrugged. "No."

I nodded and went in the bathroom, locking the door behind me. I turned on the water and went in the glass shower. Goddess, I hate glass showers. I _triple encrypted_ the lock on the bathroom door. I mean, if someone walked in...Ugh...I quickly scrubbed myself up, keen to get out of the shower. In the real world I had taken half an hour in the shower, much to the chagrin of my housemates. Here, I didn't. I had work, and other things to do. I stepped out, dried off, and got dressed, thankful once again that I didn't have hair to deal with. I threw my night clothes in the hamper, reminding my self I needed to do a load of laundry tonight. When I came out of the bathroom, a cloud of steam followed me. I glanced at the kitchen. Empty. Kolyat was probably in his room. I shrugged. Out of every thing I had to eat, I felt like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I sauntered over to the kitchen and pulled out the bread, butter, jelly and a knife. I laid the bread on my counter. Eh, it was clean enough. I smeared tons of peanut butter on the bread, and a little bit of jelly—that's how I roll. I made two sandwiches, one for me and one for my guest.

"Oi! Hit-man! Breakfast's ready." I blinked. Where in the name of Athame had that come from? I shrugged. It must be one of my crazy spells coming on. Usually I just cranked up some earth music and annoyed the bullshavick out of my neighbors, while dancing badly. Today, however...today I had _company. _The door to his room opened and out came a grumpy drell.

"I am not a hit..." His words trailed away in wonderment and confusion as I floated his sandwich over to him with my biotics. He just stared at it as it jiggled at eye level.

"Well..." I sounded bored. "Are you just going to stare at it? Take it before I drop it." When he didn't do anything for a moment, I frowned. "Either that or I'll fling it at your face." He hurriedly grabbed it after that. I released it, and he was left holding it awkwardly.

"Is this a...peanut and butter jelly sandwich?"_*****_

I stared at him calmly for about four seconds, which happened to be four more seconds than I thought I would be able to stare at him calmly. After that I was leaning desperately on the half-wall that separated the kitchen from the rest of the house, the likes of my laughter not able to be described in mere words. "Oh goddess! Oh, my lordie!" I hauled myself up to a standing position using the table, having to bite my lip _hard_ to stop the giggles. If I didn't stop now, I could tell it would be awhile till I could again. "It is a peanut and butter jelly...for the love of...! You have me saying it too!" I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. "It is a peanut. Butter. And. Jelly. Sandwich. Eat it." He gave me a look, but did as I said, not wanting to upset the crazy weirdo he saw in front of him. We finished our breakfast and headed out to the Zakera Ward, to get our assignment for the day. Bailey said good morning, handed us our route, and sent us on our way, acting completely normal—completely regulation. It was weird. I glanced at him on our way out, and he winked, causing me to shake my head. He didn't want any questions asked by any other officers. It was best to keep this thing under wraps for now, I supposed.

* * *

"Well, it's hard to explain, but, you're with C-Sec, but you're not..." I bit my lip. I wasn't really telling him anything useful... "Well, I'll put it a different way. If you got in trouble, C-Sec could back you, cover you up, or they could deny your existence and let you get eaten by politic sharks...So if you get in trouble, make sure you do it on C-Sec's terms, eh?" I nudged him with my elbow, and I thought I saw a ghost of a smile flicker on his face. We were walking in the Presidium, like the part in Mass Effect uno. I always liked that version of the Citadel. I guess it was just strange for me to realize that just because Bioware re-wired the Citadel in the other two games didn't mean the original layout wasn't there. Anyway, we had been given a route up top because there's less crime here. It was for the newbie and all, though I suspected that Bailey wouldn't keep us here long. Kolyat had been C-Sec for a total of two hours, but he was no stranger when it came to a gun, and Bailey needed people who didn't shoot themselves in the foot down in the Ward. We had been patrolling for awhile, I guess. Most of the time we were silent, but it wasn't really weird silence. We both knew we really didn't have much to talk about, and besides the odd question every once in a blue while, we didn't take any chances. We just walked, admiring the scenery, mostly. Up ahead, I saw...the bridge. I sighed. We were going to walk over it. It had always been especially hard for me to traverse that bridge. Oddly enough, it always made me want to jump off before I...well, you know. Thinking of my mother, I decided to chance something with Kolyat. "So...you gonna talk to your dad?"

He stiffened. "Why is it any of your business?"

I sighed. "Because you should. Don't do something you'll regret because you didn't want to get outta the bed you share with pride."

"My business is my business. Why should you care if I don't talk to my father? He didn't talk with me when I wanted him to, so why should I help him? The universe is just people paying each other back, and I don't owe him anything but neglect." He stormed off, onto the bridge. Keelah...I hadn't thought we had gotten this far already. I followed him, gingerly at first, but then picking up my pace when I didn't want him to get too far ahead. When I came upon the place...I...had no choice. My legs wouldn't move. I just stood there, staring at the ground. Somehow I expected it to be stained purple with her blood, but it was squeaky clean. Like nothing had ever happened. Just like the bosh'tet Council wanted. They were dishonoring every bloody person who died that day. _No pun intended_, I thought grimly. They were stupid, to put it bluntly. My only consolation was the fact that they would soon be begging for Shepard's help. All those thoughts breezed through my mind in seconds. I needed to do something for her, other than curse the Council. I bowed my head and closed my eyes.

_Athame, I didn't believe in you, but my mother did. I know you're just an image the Protheans used but...that isn't my point. My mother...she prayed to you every morning and every night, and I hope, I pray, she found some sort of solace, in you, or in some other place._

"What's taking you so long?" Kolyat growled. _Degenerate, Riotous, Slimy, Despicable, Vile, Uncaring, Fartnocker!_ I fumed.

I took a deep breath, feeling my biotics flare close to the surface. I forced them to rise and fall, like my mother had taught me. Goddess, she had taught me so many things. I wonder if there was a slight sheen to my skin, but if there was, Kolyat didn't seemed to notice. As it was, I managed to force my wild hot billowing fury down into a small pinhead stream of intense, cold distaste, which I normally would just sigh and get rid of at this point. When I got mad, it was usually a spur of the moment thing, and my mother had taught me to force it down and dissipate it...kind of like when The Doctor put all of his radiation in his converse shoe. Um...anyway...while an angry fit was unpleasant when it came from a human, one from an untrained asari could mess with the mass of the environment, which was not only unpleasant, but pricey—whether it came in the form of medical bills or not didn't matter.

"Shouldn't we be patrolling or something?" Came Kolyat's sardonic voice from the front. I hadn't yet calmed down, I still had my cold anger pent up, and it seemed like he was going to get a dose of it. I stalked up at him, and stopped an inch from him, actually, it was less than an inch. If someone had seen only our proximity and not our faces, they might have thought this an intimate moment. It wasn't.

I narrowed my eyes dangerously and smiled thinly. He was hiding his growing anxiety, but not very well. "Well, I knew the galaxy was going to pot but this?" I laughed mirthlessly. "I didn't know it was a _crime_ for a girl to say a small prayer where her mother was _gunned down right in front of her_ by a bloody _Geth Prime!_" I spat out every word, but I think the unease in my partner's eyes was caused mostly because of the fact that I hadn't raised my voice once. Emphasized words, yes, but my voice level had stayed normal, and deadly sinister, the whole time. I broke away and continued to the edge of the bridge, slowly. He needed time to catch up, and I had a feeling he wasn't going to move terribly soon. I sighed, my anger had been spent up, and it left me tired. I realized then that I had been really mean. I hated what I said to people when I was angry, because I never thought about what I said, I just said it. I reached the end of the bridge, and waited for Kolyat to step up beside me.

"I...didn't know. I was just...angry for you telling me what to do about my father..." I turned towards him, grabbed him by the shoulders, and turned him to face me. He was taller than me, which would have deterred me if I wasn't so focused.

I looked in his eyes and continued in a softer tone. "Kolyat, you're lucky to know the approximate time your father is going to die, and he has made his intentions clear. Real life isn't as kind. Sketchy childhood thrown aside, fate is doing you a favor right now. I just don't want you to feel the regret later, the regret of not saying _so much_ that you should have. I know there might not be much to say at first, but you can't give up, Kolyat, you just can't, all right?"

I needed to gather myself before I started sounding like a poorly made sappy scene from some low budget movie. "Just make an effort. That will be enough, but you have to want to. In the end, I can't make the decision for you, nor can Shepard or Bailey. I'm no Matriarch, but I've got 200 years on you. You might want to listen to me." I smiled at that last part. He studied me, and then nodded. I imagined us, at the end of _THE _bridge. I had crossed it, had reached the end, and was now using my sorrow to help guide Kolyat. It was all very symbolic and deep, and I thought it ironic at first. After a few nights I wouldn't. You see, after that, my mother no longer frequented my nightmares. I was still left with the ghost of my mangled turian, but one phantom is always better than two.

After our patrolling for the day, we checked in to Bailey. The Captain gave me a look that let me know that he wanted a report later, off the grid, and I nodded to let him know I understood. He also told my drell buddy of his new residence, and gave him the key. Lucky for the green lizard, it was in Zakera ward. He could _walk_ to work in a few darn minutes. Kolyat caught a cab with me to my apartment. Sigh, he just needed to pick up his bag, I don't need anyone giving that thought any sniggering. We came in silently, me kicking off my shoes in a manner he studied with a raised eyebrow, and him heading for his room. He came out with his bag slung over his shoulder, and something in his hands. He was looking at it intently. "I see the resemblance."

I furrowed my brow from where I was dumping my clothes in the decon chamber. "Huh?"

He held up the object in his hands. It was a holo of Weania. "You look remarkably like her."

"Oh, yeah." I set the decontamination cycle. "Well that would make sense. Asari don't get any DNA from their 'father'." I said with air quotes. I padded over to the kitchen to get a spoonful of peanut butter, but when I had gotten it down from the cupboard, I thought of something else to use the last of it for. He looked up, slightly confused, but not taking note of what I was doing in my kitchen. I sighed. "I'll give you an asari biology lesson later. Here." I floated him a sandwich. He set the holo down on the table and took it. "I figured your new apartment wouldn't be stocked with food, and you haven't eaten since that measly lunch on the Presidium." He looked at it as if it was more than a sandwich, and then nodded. He walked to the door, but before he left, he turned to me.

"Thank you. For the advice and the...peanut...and the sandwich." He said, furrowing his brow.

I laughed. "No problem, Kolyat. See you at the precinct tomorrow, oh seven hundred. Don't be late."

He nodded. "Yes ma'am." The door closed behind him, leaving me alone...fresh out of peanut butter, and smiling. I walked over to the table and picked up the holo of my mother. She was smiling, and had her arms around my shoulders. Well, not mine, Teleya's. It was before I was her. Still, it was me and her in a way, and I had to appreciate that. I took it over to my bed and placed it on my nightstand. I had forgotten I had left it in her room, as a last memento, I suppose. I wasn't going to forget again. I curled up into the bed, exhausted but strangely peaceful. Maybe getting the anger out had made me feel better. _I should shout at Kolyat more..._and then sleep took me.

_***I actually wrote it like that at first before I realized it, and thought it would be funny for Kolyat to say.**_

_**I don't know if I'm getting a lot of humor in this, or if I'm doing a good job of it. If anyone has any tips in the world of laughs, I would be eternally grateful.**_

_**Also, tell me if I'm getting Kolyat's character wrong. He's been a little hard for me to write.**_


	6. Chapter 5: The Krogan on Steroids

**_Wow! Another Chapter! I Basically wrote all day. I want to thank tmd126 yet again for reviewing, and jaimerider13 as well._**

**_Disclaimer:I don't own ME_**

_Commander Shepard,_

_I don't know if this will reach you, but I hope it will. Ha ha, I bet you get that all the time. Anyway...i__t's just a little update on Kolyat. He's doing good so far, helping us do patrols and such. Bailey stuck him with me, so he's my partner now. I think we'll be a good team, our personalities don't clash too much._

_I told him he should talk to Thane, but I don't know if he will. From the look on his face, I would say he's at least going to try...but, I dunno. He's been entertaining, to be sure. For example, he called a peanut butter and jelly sandwich a 'peanut and butter jelly sandwich'. I swear I couldn't stop laughing for a whole minute. Anyway, good luck out there. Heaven knows you're going to need it._

_ -Lt. Commander T'Leri_

* * *

_Father,_

_I wasn't going to talk to you, but I was being...prideful. T'Leri pointed that out to me. She told me that I might not want to do this, but that I should at least try. So...here it is...Um, Bailey assigned me to Lt. Commander T'Leri, so, we're partners now. I guess he wanted someone to keep an eye on me, but he also said that she had wanted me to do this 'community service' so she had to teach me. Anyway, we get to patrol the Presidium. It's pretty uneventful. Lt. T'Leri is...different. She can be immature and then wise, and calm and then crazy. I don't really know what to do around her...But I guess we're stuck like this so no point in complaining. I don't really have anything else to say. I haven't done much else. Bailey got me an apartment for the time being. It's small but it'll work. Anyway...just wanted to tell you that...Um, talk to you later I guess?_

_ -Kolyat_

* * *

_Kolyat,_

_I am grateful that you decided to write to me, even though my actions do not warrant it. I do not know if I will return from this mission alive and I wish to talk to you as often as our schedules allow. I am glad to hear you are not incarcerated, and are instead helping C-Sec. I know how it feels to have a superior who is confusing; Shepard is as volatile and as hard to explain as it sounds like your partner is. I am just glad she has convinced you to talk with me. Where is your apartment on the Citadel? Is it close to your work? Have you done anything more than patrolling? I do not wish to trouble you with so many questions, but I am...worried about you. As for me, a recent trip to a planet called Pragia has...somewhat worsened my condition as of late, but nothing too dangerous. I cannot go into specifics, but we are almost finished building up our crew and making peace, and our final leg may be coming on faster than I originally anticipated. In the case we cannot talk before then, I wish to tell you how much you mean to me. I now have a reason to try to survive this mission. Hopefully, we will speak again before the Normandy goes through the Omega 4 Relay, but if not, farewell._

_ -Thane_

* * *

Two weeks of running around the Presidium had gone by, and I had a sneaky feeling Bailey was going to send us on the trail of one of the Red Sand agents in the Wards. Rojenko's team wasn't getting anywhere, and I thought, _I hoped,_ that Bailey might switch our details. I was currently in a cab headed for the precinct. In the weeks that had gone by, Kolyat and I had gotten more used to each other, and our silences more comfortable. Bailey said we were a good team, and I was inclined to believe him. Kolyat loved to use his submachine gun , but he had a heavy pistol too. I just had my hand cannon, my mantis, and my biotics. The cab landed in the docking zone, and I walked through security, winking at Haron as he let me through. "Lookin' good today, T'Leri."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah Yeah, Haron. You're lookin' pretty too." With that the door opened, and I strolled over to Bailey's desk. Kolyat was already here, leaning impatiently on the counter. "Top o' the mornin' to ya, boys. What are we in for today?" Kolyat stood up and walked over to stand by me, giving our boss a challenging stare.

Bailey seemed to assess us, before sighing. "Alright you two, I get the picture. You're temporarily reassigned to the Red Sand case."

"YESH! I knew it!" I pumped the air with my fist, receiving two odd looks from the men. "Ah...I mean...Yessir?"

Bailey just chuckled. "Well, we gotta wait for Rojenko to get back here to break the news. That's means you have, uh, about an hour of free time."

I looked over at Kolyat, who raised an eyebrow at me. I didn't want to do nothing. I was all fired up! "You wanna practice?" I nudged him with an elbow. He shrugged an affirmative.

Bailey sighed. "Do you guys ever let off any steam?"

I grinned evilly. "Have you seen our sparring? We _do _let off steam." Kolyat smirked a little, and we headed off to the practice rooms, an exasperated department head behind.

At first, I had been surprised to learn that Kolyat had the use of biotics. I don't know why, his father had them, but I just assumed differently. It was now a certain pastime of ours to practice our biotics in the sparring rooms. We would chuck crates at each other, try to lift each other up, throw each other around etc. One person being the offensive and the other practicing various ways to contradict the offensive moves. When we entered the sparring room, Kolyat gave me time to meditate like he always did. It helped me focus my energy better. He usually spent the time stretching. As if on some unspoken signal, we both stood up and faced each other. That's what made us a good team. We didn't need a lot of verbal communication. We sort of just...read each others minds. We gave each other a look, and didn't move an inch in our little stand off. Some twitch in both of our forms must have alerted us to our intentions, because in less than a second, we had both lifted a crate up and propelled it towards each other at a ridiculous speed, and an ungodly explosion of sound thrust us backwards and off our feet as they collided. We both struggled upwards as the two crates, dramatically altered in shape, banged against the ground and fell still. I smirked, and Kolyat grinned. The happiest I ever saw him was when we sparred. We both draped ourselves in energy, mine a deep blue that was almost violet, and his a sort of brighter blue. I ran towards him and into the two crates, drawing them around me in a tornado-like way. I launched my self upwards and blocked Kolyat's attacks with the crates. I could quickly feel my energy draining. I needed to act fast. After blocking a particularly big warp, I used the flash to hide the launching of one of the crates. He barely dodged it, but I had accurately guessed the direction he would jump, and sent the other one careening into him. Good timing too, because I fell to the floor and slumped against the cold ground. Okay, that had been stupid. Kolyat must have been confused as to why the crate hadn't hit him harder, and he had now started towards me. "Teleya? Are you all right?" I looked up towards him. He was worried, but he was letting his guard down. Not like I could make much use of that in my state.

"Yup." I gasped. "'M fine." I struggled up, holding up a hand to tell him I didn't need any help. I shoved him back weakly and then smiled. "We're not done here, Krios." He smirked and then threw a biotic punch.

* * *

When Rojenko got back, he raised Hades, but there was nothing he could do. He handed over the information and stalked away. Kolyat was currently leaning over my shoulder as I scrolled through the data, most of it crap. Basically, we were supposed to catch the ringleader. If we took him down, all of his henchman would be obsolete. We really had nothing to go off of, except for some...names! Some of the names I recognized. They were the names I had got out of Seth Jackson. My excitement drifted away. They would never talk to C-Sec! The ringleader would be gone by then. After a few hours of looking over nothing helpful at all, a desperate plan was forming in my mind. I grabbed Kolyat's arm and dragged him over to the interrogation room and locked the door, not caring what sort of looks we got. "W-Wha? Teleya?" Stammered Kolyat.

I shook my head. "Shhhh! I have an idea." I studied his face, which was different. "What's wrong?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Ah, nothing. You just suddenly dragged me off to an empty room and locked the door."

I blinked. "So?" I didn't know why he was acting so weird.

He shrugged, still looking uncomfortable. "Nothing. You said you had an idea?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I think I know how to penetrate the cell, thing." He nodded, as if to say, 'I'm listening'. "So, some people use Red Sand because they say it enhances their biotics, right? Well, I figure if someone was to maybe buy some Sand, then deal some sand, and do good at selling it, they might rise up the ranks and meet the head, you know?"

He nodded. "Who?"

I grinned. "You!"

He looked shocked. "Me?! Why?"

"Because, youl have some biotic ability, and it would make sense if you bought Red Sand. Besides, no one on the Wards has seen you as C-Sec yet."

He looked offended. "I wouldn't do that Red Sand garbage!"

I gave him a pointed look. "I wasn't saying _you _would. I was saying your _stereotype_ would, and it's your stereotype they'll be paying attention to. Just buy some, sell some, and meet the boss. That's all." He didn't say anything for awhile. "Kolyat, this might be the only way to get this guy."

He nodded."Okay. Am I going to get a wire or something?"

I looked him straight in the eye, showing the importance of what I was about to say. "Kolyat, they're going to scan you for that sort of thing. You have to go in totally on your own. You might find a way to send me a message every once and awhile but...this is all trust, Kolyat. You're my partner. I have to trust you. Okay that was bad...I do trust you, alright? I know you are the only person for this job."

He nodded. "I'll do it."

I grinned and clapped his shoulder. "That's the spirit! Come on, we can get started now! Here, these are a list of the dealers we know of who work in this cell." I handed him a pad. "This guy is always in the warehouse."

He looked to me. "Are we going to tell Bailey?"

I winced. "You go on ahead. I'll tell Bailey." Kolyat nodded, and then left, leaving me in the room alone. Goddess I hope I made the right decision...

* * *

"You what!? You put him undercover without a wire? He's been C-Sec for a two weeks!" Bailey shouted at me in the interrogation room.

I didn't even move. "He can do this, Captain. He's perfect for this, okay?"

"I don't know what got into you, letting him off his leash so soon!"

That made me angry. "Letting him—Captain. I've been his partner for two weeks and haven't complained once. That's close to impossible for me! I trust him, Captain, already, and with my life. This is the only way to take this guy down." I glared at him pointedly.

He paused. "If this doesn't work, you'll have more to complain about than a new trainee." He said sternly. "You're temporarily reassigned to Patrol duty with Syrran as of tomorrow. Dismissed."

I was shocked. Patrol duty? "But, Captain—"

"Dismissed." I blinked, feeling like a chastised little girl, with cheeks burning a deep purple. I nodded, not having the words left for a 'Yessir'. I hurriedly walked out of the room and to the Docking Bay, not looking behind me.

* * *

I sat on my bed, scowling at the ceiling. A pounding on the door made me jump. I grabbed my gun and ran over, not sure if I'd find Kolyat or...someone else. I punched the door open, but no one was there. Confused, I looked around. On the ground was a slip of paper. _Paper?_ I grabbed it and returned to my bed.

_Teleya._

_I am selling already. They don't suspect a thing._

_ -KK_

Short but to the point. I grinned. I hadn't expected him to be selling already! They must like him or something. This was going to be awesome!

* * *

This was horrible...I mean, I liked Buzzie, but as a partner...HE TALKS ALL OF THE TIME! First, it was about the lights in his apartment, then about the some arms store he liked. He talked about his favorite mods, his favorite restaurant, and believe it or not, his favorite kind of Turian cheese. Currently he was talking about this girl he'd met at a bar, which was kind of awkward. I sighed. "Buzzie, not that I don't find the story of you and that asari interesting, but could you maybe pause it for a second? I have a headache."

He nodded. "Sure thing. You alright?"

"Yeah." I sighed. "It's just, Kolyat doesn't talk a lot."

"Oh." He paused. "That drell. Didn't he try to kill someone? I don't even get why he's in C-Sec at all. If you ask me, he should be in prison."

I glared at him. Buzz and I were friends, but this... "Well, nobody did ask you!"

He glanced down at me. "What's your problem all of a sudden?"

I clenched my teeth. "Kolyat...you don't know him, okay, so don't judge him!"

He gaped at me. "Bluebird, He tried to kill someone! He would've! How can you be on his side? He's as good as a murderer."

I stopped and glared fiercely at the turian next to me. "He is not, Syrran! He's my partner, and my friend, and I don't let anyone talk about my friends like that so just _drop it,_ okay?"

His mandibles twitched. "Fine." We continued in silence for the rest of the shift, but it was not the comfortable silence I shared with Kolyat. It was the kind of angry silence that turns your blood to ice and makes your stomach turn.

We stopped back at the precinct before our next shift, and Bailey was putting together a sting. He was looking for one more person as we walked in. "Buzz wants to!" I said instantly. Bailey looked to me and then to the irritated turian for a moment, before motioning him over.

"You can take the shift by yourself?" Asked Bailey.

I shrugged. "Pffft. Of course. I practically own these streets." I continued in a more serious way. "You have nothing to worry about Captain." He nodded and started to move his group out. Before leaving he gave me a pointed look that told me he wanted to know what had gone wrong between us, and I merely shrugged in response.

I decided to start my shift of patrolling the Ward early, because I had nothing else to do. It was level 26, 27, 28, and the dock, which was all one section like in the game funny enough. It was one of the many hubs of Zakera Ward. Apartments connected important strips, but a different patrol covered residential areas. Patrolling isn't all that interesting; you just walk around and look for trouble makers, and most of the 'trouble makers' aren't really making very much trouble at all. As if to prove my point, a human was harassing a quarian with whom he'd obviously had a disagreement. A C-Sec officer, Grys, was handling it, but I still moved in, standing behind Grys so he couldn't tell me to go away while I was dropping eaves. "I didn't do anything with his onmi-tool! I was just checking the time! I have a job interview I need to get to! I'm already going to be late!" The person talking was a quarian female, with beautiful blue accents on her suit. Her voice was soft, but purposeful.

"Since when do quarians have job interviews? She's lying! She siphoned money out of my account after I gave my account number to the check out lady." Said the human. Playing the game, I developed a respect for the quarian people. They were so strong, and their laws and customs were interesting to me. That said, I hated it when people were racist.

"Since when do humans give their account numbers to people they don't know?" I said, stepping up and tapping my finger on my lips as if asking a question. "Oh yeah, when they're being careless. Careless people get stolen from." The human looked shocked at my rudeness.

"I'm handling this, T'Leri." Came Grys's voice from my side.

"Yeah, and you're doing a good job of it too." I looked to the haughty human in front of me. "Did it ever occur to you two that the cashier could be the one who did this? Send the code of some stupid customer off to a third party who gives her a cut?" I shrugged. "Makes sense to me."

"Well, this man said he saw her on her omni-tool outside the shop when he purchased supplies. I mean, she's a quarian. I think that makes more sense." Said Grys. He just said that, right in front of her. Against my better judgement, I let some biotic energy form around my clenched fist, and smiled slightly when I saw the officer's eyes widen.

"Well, why don't you do some actual police work and look at substantial facts instead of standing lazily in the Ward harassing a young woman because of her race, huh?" Most of the stuff I did here, like shoot at baddies, I wouldn't have imagined myself doing in the real world, but this I could see Jane Wolfe doing. Racism was not okay in any universe.

"How dare you-" Started Grys, mandibles flaring.

I interrupted him. "Go back to the precinct, and don't make me pull rank." My tone was final, and he realized that. He may have been a prick, but he was a turian, and they follow orders.

"Yes ma'am." He growled. "But I'm telling the Captain about this."

I laughed then. "Lieutenant, the Captain is a lot of things, but he's not racist, so if you're looking for someone to back you up, I wouldn't go there." He just stalked off. I sighed, looking to my human charge. "Name."

He spluttered. "You can't just do that to me!"

I glared. "Am I not treating you right, sir? Maybe you should live in the shoes of a quarian for a day. You won't be complaining about fairness anymore. Now, you're name."

He was so angry he was red in the face. "Why do you need that?"

"So I can do a formal inquiry."

He was sooooo miffed. "Mr. Paul Jenko." He huffed.

I smiled thinly. "Thank you sir. We will continue the investigation and inform you of any results. Good day." He gave me a very particular human gesture before walking away. I rolled my eyes and turned to the quarian. "I will be needing a name and address for you as well, miss."

She nodded and opened her omni-tool, sending the information to mine. "Of course! It's good to be treated equal for a change."

I smiled and shook my head. "It shouldn't be so rare, and it's sad that it is."

She seemed to smile, the way her eyes narrowed, but I couldn't tell through her suit. "I couldn't agree more. Thanks for sticking up for me."

I shrugged. "No problem. So you said you had an interview? Can you still make it?"

She sighed and shook her head. "No, but it's not like they were going to hire me anyway. It was probably just to make the company look good, like they were trying to be open-minded. I'm Mez'Ralah nar Rayya, by the way."

I held out a hand. "Nice to meet you miss Ralah. I'm Teleya T'Leri." She glanced at my hand for a moment, but made no move to take it. Wow, I'm stupid. "Oh! It's a human greeting. You grab my hand and then we shake them up and down."

She hesitantly grasped my hand and shook it slowly. "Nice to meet you."

I now had time to admire her suit. The cloth on the headdress and along the rest of the suit was a beautiful subdued blue with small airy curls on them. It was sort of like Tali's outfit in Two and Three, but a little different. "Wow!" I gasped. "Your suit is so pretty!"

He eyes widened, surprised. "Oh! You think so? I've never had a non-quarian comment on it before."

I raised an eyebrow. "I don't know why, It's stunning."

She twirled her hands together, but nodded to me. "Well, thanks..."

I needed to talk before this got awkward. "Well, I should get back to my shift, but if anyone gives you trouble, or if you need someone to put a good word in for you for an interview or something, just message me." I sent her my omni-tool's contact data. "Or if you just want to talk to someone. I have lots of free time hanging around."

She smiled. "Keelah! Oh, I mean, thank you...that's very generous of you! I guess I might see you later?"

I nodded, moving away. "Definately!" Score! I might have just made a friend!

* * *

I was sullenly laying on my bed, curled up in a ball. Bailey hadn't approved my request for a new temporary partner, and Syrran had walked in right as it happened. I'm pretty sure he hates me now, but a week of tense silence had been enough to make me crazy. On the plus side, Mez sent me a few messages and we talked for awhile, which made me feel sort of loved. I hoped I could get to know her better; she was really considerate and calm, two things I didn't get much of surrounded by guys at the precinct. After a short investigation, it was found that the cashier was responsible.

Kolyat had left a few short notes. One said that he was selling a lot, and another with the names of some other unknown dealers we could deal with later. He told me he was doing good, better than other dealers. I had asked a few street rats who owed me to buy from him so that helped. I hadn't realized how much I enjoyed his company or how well we worked together until now. I was going to be insane by the time this was done. The door banged and I jumped up, not even thinking of my gun. Another note! I punched the door open and hurriedly looked the the ground. I furrowed my brow. Feet? I dragged my eyes up slowly to meet the smirking face of Kolyat Krios.

"Kolyat!" I screamed, lunging at him and wrapping my arms around his neck.

"Ummm...Teleya?" He struggled to formulate words under my tight embrace.

I blushed and pulled away. "Sorry! I...ah...missed you..." I fiddled with my sleeve.

His smirk was back. "I don't blame you."

I smacked his arm. "Come in." He did, and we meandered over to my couch. "So what's new?"

He grinned. "He wants to meet me."

My eyes widened. "NO WAY!"

"Yup. This turian who handles dealers knows the head, and he said I was the most productive and said it's time for me to move up. Anyone who moves up meets the head. Tomorrow, a warehouse at the tip of the Ward, at o eight hundred."

I furrowed my brow. "He just told you ahead of time like that?"

He shrugged. "Yeah."

I shook my head. "It seems fishy to me. It's too soon. I mean, a week? And he just tells you ahead of time? This is too quick."

"Come on, Teleya. Trust me."

I sighed. "Okay, we'll do the meet. But I'm going to be there hiding, and I'm going to tell Bailey."

He nodded. "I guess that makes sense."

"It's settled then." I smiled. "Let's watch a movie."

He raised an eyebrow. "What?"

I grinned. "Let's watch a movie! I want to watch a movie."

He shrugged. "Okay."

"YAY!" I jumped up and chose a vid, Fleet and Flotilla, funny enough. I put it on and then sat down next to Kolyat.

He sighed. "A romance? Really, Teleya?"

I gave him a little glare. "I read the book and I want to see the movie." He shook his head but said nothing more.

Halfway though the movie, I was yelling at it for not being like the book, and Kolyat was asleep. I angrily turned it off and sat there fuming. "Is it over?" The drell asked, groggy.

I bit my lip. "No, Kolyat. It is not over, but it's a big pile of shizwhiz compared to the book and I don't want to watch it."

He blinked his eyelids simultaneously. "Oh."

We sat there in silence for a very long time. "You want a sandwich."

He shrugged. "What kind?"

I turned to him and grinned. "Peanut and butter jelly!" He laughed, and I smiled even bigger. I had made Kolyat Krios laugh. I can check that off my bucket list! It's funny how many things you check off your bucket list that weren't on there before you did them...

* * *

I was bunched in a little hole, as was Syrran, the other officer Bailey assigned for this. I was holding still, clutching my sniper rifle in case of any trouble. The warehouse we were in was used for storing a plethora of huge things that I didn't know the name of, but it now stored something else. Kolyat. He was in there, standing around. He was waiting for the ringleader, and so was I. I knew something was up. The air just didn't feel right, and it was driving me crazy. I peeked over the crate I was hiding behind to gain a look. We were fairly far back, so much so that I had to look through the scope of my sniper rifle to make out Kolyat's form. This warehouse was big. Suddenly, a door slammed ahead of us, and Kolyat straightened up and stiffened. "Put your gun down!" Hissed Syrran.

"No!" I growled back. "I need to see what's happening." He mumbled something but then said no more. A still breeze drifted by, perhaps stirred up by industrial fans. Other than that the air was dead still. A figure came into view in front of Kolyat. It was a krogan. Thick armor. I had a feeling he was biotic, but I had no idea why that was.

"So..." Came the Ringleader's suave but dangerous voice. "You wanted to meet me?" I stiffened, and I could tell Kolyat did too.

"I never asked to meet you. The turian said I needed to." He replied coolly.

The deadly cackle of the Krogan's malicious laugh froze my blood right then and there. Not knowing how I managed to move, I signaled Syrran to get ready to storm.

"The turian is an idiot. However, he works for me, and I am not." I didn't believe in Athame, but that didn't stop me from sending up a small prayer.

"I do not understand." Came Kolyat's calm voice. Dang, if I were him I would be quaking in my boots at possibly being found out. _But he's not. He's trusting me to have his back. _I let out a breath.

"Did you think I was an idiot? I know you work for C-Sec. Did you think you could take me down all by yourself?" Suddenly, three turians came out from both sides and surrounded Kolyat. "I know drell, they are stubborn little lizards. You wouldn't dare ask for help." _Wrong. _The turian on the left fell to the ground as his head exploded in a spray of blood and brains from my sniper rifle's slug.

"Go!" I hissed at Syrran, and we both sprinted towards Kolyat. Doors that separated the warehouse started to close, and Kolyat wasn't able to move, as the krogan had him in some sort of biotic field. I couldn't let the doors cut me off from him. Torn between my friend and an old promise, I threw the sniper rifle aside and used both arms to steady my running. I was going to make it! My lungs felt as if they were going to explode, but I didn't stop, I couldn't.

"Teleya!" I heard Syrran shout. He wasn't going to make it, but I would. The doors were almost shut, and I tried not to think of how it would feel if I got crushed in them as I ran straight forward. I turned my body sideways to breach the gap, and I did, feeling the rush of air on my fingertips as the doors closed a second too late for the krogan's taste. I kept going forward, biotics blazing. I slammed a turian into a wall, his blood smearing it as he slid down, but the last one grabbed my in a choke hold from behind. I could see Kolyat struggle in the field as I engaged in a struggle of my own. The krogan put his hands on either side of Kolyat's face, grinning sadistically. _Nononononono! Is he going to crush his skull like Khan did to Admiral Marcus?! _His hands flared in a field of blue around Kolyat's face, and an agonizing scream ripped from the drells lips. In a flash of anger. I lifted both the turian and I up high. When I was far from the ground, I drew my mass effect field closer until it was only on my skin, and we started to plummet downwards. Before we fell too far, I readied to throw my field out.

"AAAARGH!" I bellowed as I threw my field out with all of my strength. The turian on my back was ripped from me, bruising my neck as he exploded out wards. I believe his body may have been ripped apart before he hit the ground, but I didn't know for sure. I then realized I was still falling, and balanced my field seconds before I would've been a smear on the ground. I touched down and ran towards the krogan. To penetrate the field, I was going to need to use my biotics. I saturated my skin in deep blue, and plunged into the field. It was like trying to run underwater, or walk through a wall of wet cement. The krogan groaned as he used his last energy reserves to strengthen the field. Dude?! What was this guy on? Oh...yeah. I screamed as I pushed through it still, shocked when my biotics started to glow a dark purple. I pulled out my gun and continued forward, almost to my krogan target, conscious of the limp drell to my side. One last time the krogan bellowed as he thickened his field, but it couldn't stop the pain, anger, and thirst for revenge in my heart. I made one last step forward, placed my gun flush on his armor and smirked. "Goodnight." The single shot, fueled by shredder ammo, ripped through his armor and his skin, punching straight through him and pushing him back. He fell with a thud to the ground. The field was dropped and I felt a hundred times lighter. I twisted back in an acrobatic move I didn't know I could preform to catch Kolyat before he hit the ground. I held his limp form on my lap as I called out to him. "Kolyat? Can you hear me? What did he do to you? Wake up, oh please wake up!" I pressed my forehead to his, crying and not knowing what to do. "Oh please." I whispered. "Please, Kalahira, don't take him now..."

_**Tell me if you think the ending is too cheesy or if I'm taking it too fast. **_


	7. Chapter 6: The Meld

_**For the record, we are going to assume that all of the DLC's are going to be in this, since it is reality in this world and it exists without having to buy it.**_

_**Thank you jaimerider13, elidan1012, and Georgejb for reviewing.**_

_**Disclaimer:I don't own ME**_

I paced endlessly outside of the door to Kolyat's room in the Huerta Memorial Hospital. Funny enough, it was Thane's deathbed he was laying on. I would have found the irony kind of hilarious if I hadn't been so worried. The door opened and out came an asari doctor, who I accosted with questions the moment I saw her. "Is he okay? Is he dead? What happened? Is he awake?" I bit my lip to stop the flow of stupid questions. He was just a co-worker. Why was I so dang worried? _Shut up logic brain! Kolyat is my friend! _

The doctor grabbed my shoulders. "Miss T'Leri is it? Your friend is alive, but in critical condition."

I nodded at her question and then countered with one of my own. "Yes but what's _wrong_." I normally wasn't this rude to people, but she seemed like she was used to it.

"It seems that the attack Mr. Krios suffered messed up the neural patterns in his brain. His connections are going haywire, firing off randomly. If we woke him up now he would be having seizures."

I tried to take a deep breath. "What are you going to do?"

She looked uncomfortable now. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing we _can_ do. If he stays like this, his pathways will degrade until there's nothing left. So far there hasn't been any lasting damage, but there's no way to stop the degrading. I'm sorry." She put a hand on my shoulder. "If it makes it any better, he should be able to hear you. I don't know if it'll make much sense, but..." I smiled sadly and walked towards his prone form. I bit my lip as tears spilled out of my eyes. Goddess, he was more than a co-worker. He was my friend. The only one I could put up with. I sat on the chair next to him and took his hand. Gah. Shepard had been so cool about it when Thane died. She only cried a little, and she romanced him in my file! I pressed the back of his hand to my forehead as a buried my face in the gurney. I sobbed for a little while before looking back up. She had said he could hear me.

"Kolyat...I don't know if you can here me but...I...Goddess I don't know what to say!" I bit my lip and tried to say something comforting. I thought, maybe... "I don't believe in your gods, Kolyat, but they are yours..." I took a deep breath... "Arashu, I beg you, watch over the heart of this one, keep him close to you in your embrace. Please don't let him go...please..." I found I couldn't say anymore as my voice cracked. The air seemed full of chaotic energy. I furrowed my brow through the tears. Could I be feeling his...biotic energy or something? I mean I had a feeling that that krogan was a biotic...my mom said that asari are more attuned to biotic stuff when she taught me how to meld...wait! That's it! I let go of his hand and bolted out of the room looking frantically for his doctor. I saw her and ran after her. "Wait!" She turned around, confused.

"Ms. T'Leri?"

"I have an idea!" She didn't look convinced. "Look, I know I'm no doctor, but just tell me if this is even _theoretically _possible. If I melded with him, could I somehow fix the damage?"

She didn't look happy. "I suppose it could...but with a very high risk for you. Melding can be an intimate process. An invasion of privacy could..."

I cut her off, excited. "I know him well, Dr. I don't care about the risks, I'm going to do it."

She wasn't enthused, but couldn't order me not to. "All right...wait for me to get the equipment ready. I want to be there in case something goes wrong. Do you have any next of kin for me to inform?" Dang, this really must be risky.

I started to shake my head, but stopped. "Captain Bailey, in C-Sec. He'd probably want to be here." She nodded.

"One more thing. Have you melded before?"

I bit my lip. "Well, I melded with my mom, but she initiated it. Other than that, no..."

The woman looked both shocked and doubtful, but didn't say anything else. "Very well." Off she went. I went back to Kolyat's room after that, and took his hand again.

"Hey. There's something that I can do to help you, and I'm gonna do it. I can meld with your mind, and try to stop the damage. It might be dangerous, but if I don't do this, you'll die. I...if something happens to me...just...I did this for you, for Thane. He lost his wife, and I don't think he could stand to lose you." I held his hand while I meditated. I was going to need all the concentration I could get.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Teleya?" Asked Bailey from beside me. I tried to keep my blood pressure down.

"Positive." The Asari doctor across from me tapped on her data pad before nodding to me.

"I'll be monitoring the mental stimuli from both of you."

I sighed and looked her straight in the eye. "Even if I go critical, if I'm still doing good for him, don't cut me off, okay." She paused before nodding. I turned to Bailey. "If something goes wrong..." I shook my head. "Just send Shepard a communique, alright?"

He searched my face and nodded. "You got it, kid."

Without further adieu, I stood at the front of his bed, so that his head was directly in front of me. I leaned down, so that his eyes and mine were parallel. I knew that some asari said 'embrace eternity' before any kind of meld, to focus the minds of their partners, but Kolyat's mind was a rampaging freight train, and nothing was going to slow it down. Instead, I reached deep inside myself, plunging into the deep waters of some ancestral biotic prowess and absorbing it. My heartbeat slowed, my body relaxed, and all noise from the beeping monitors ceased. I had forgotten that asari reproduce this way; of course my body would slip into this deep so easily. I felt the cool tingling of biotic energy trickle down my body like someone had cracked an egg on my head. It ran down my back and I had to repress a shiver. I was used to the energy I used in battle, but not this. This energy was rich and slow and _fierce_ in so many ways. I felt so sure of myself as it surrounded me, and I knew then what it must feel like to be a Matriarch. My already strong resolve in the matter of saving Kolyat grew exponentially; if a Reaper randomly decided to squish Huerta Memorial, I suspect it couldn't stop me even if it was Harbinger itself. Some strong puppeteer seemed to be guiding my thoughts and my actions, and that was the first time I truly understood why my mother believed in Athame. My tenebrous eyes flashed open in a flare of my biotics that grew to cover my drell charge and I whispered. "Embrace eternity..."

* * *

I was astonished that I could stand up as Kolyat's violent and pulsing consciousness exploded around me in a wave of hysteria that overloaded my senses. Not only was his mind linked in mine, but it manifested itself in my visual and auditory senses as well. Flashes of bright green, blue, orange, and purple lightning attacked my eyes, even as I knew they were painfully screwed shut in the real world. Loud crashes and ringing accompanied the flashes, and an almighty migraine was quickly forming. I drew upon that once calming deep blue within myself and forced the lightning to fall down to one point of churning, spitting, and whirring fury.

I moved toward it mentally, slowly traversing along old memories and experiences that I tried desperately not to see. It didn't stop the glimpses though. Small memories would come into my path, and I would see for a second a picture of a small boy and his father, or a torrent of rain, or her. _Irikah. _I didn't want to browse—it was too personal. I focused on the mind tornado that was in front of me. When I came withing an arms length, a picture of a puzzle seemed to come in mind, and I had an idea of what I was supposed to do. Without a moment of hesitation, a grabbed onto the belligerent orb of chaos..._**Agony! **_Pure, unadulterated agony ripped through my veins and my mind, and I screamed terribly as I was drawn downwards into it's spiral. I could feel my mind being absorbed by his own typhoon, and I knew if that happened we would both be lost. I felt myself being overcome by the violent tide even as I pushed with every ounce of power left within me. Before I was completely consumed, I heard a distant voice, one of Kolyat's memories crying out...

_Oh please. Please Kalahira, don't take him yet..._

I gasped as my own voice seemed to slow the vortex down, and my frazzled mind was bolstered by the love and the desperation in my body's voice. Somewhere deep inside the brute force pushing of my despairing consciousness, I realized that this fight wasn't going to be won with power, but conviction. I withdrew my remaining forces within myself and reminded myself of what was at stake. Kolyat. It wasn't even about saving my mind anymore. I remembered the look on his face as his father told him he was the only good thing he brought into this world. I remembered the night he tried awkwardly to be of company to me after a night mare. _Peanut and butter jelly._ I remembered the time at the end of the bridge, and when I first made him laugh and _goddess..._I was _NOT_ going to lose that.

With one last monumental effort, I pulled the strings of energy all around me. My mind was stressed and taught like the strings of a groaning violin, but I managed to reel them in. They stood still for one small, strangely silent, and blissful second before exploding around me in staggeringly bright light. They curled off purposefully into the dark, and only ventured near my sagging consciousness when they pulsed systematically by. I felt small and tiny, like some part of me was gone into that darkness as well. Softly, though, like the creeping up of some growing plant, a force was growing around me. I felt confusion, pain, and wonderment. It swelled about me like a great big bubble before popping and pushing me out. I felt like I was in free fall. Then, with no warning at all, I crashed into some icy surface.

I reflexively gasped, my frantic breath hitched on rough surprise. My eyelids flew open. I was looking into the murky green of Kolyat's hidden irises which seemed to have blinked into existence the moment mine had. We hung there for what seemed like an eternity—which I knew was just a split second—some part of ourselves lost in the other. Exhaustion and pain gave me no pity, and the purgatory I had been suspended in inside Kolyat's gaze broke like fragile glass. I fell to the floor; however, the darkness had taken me long before the impact.

* * *

My eyes fluttered open, and a pang of emptiness left me grasping inside myself. A new feeling, a feeling of pure horror wrapped around me. I had no biotics. I was empty. I was alone. I tried to stand, but I kept slipping. On what? I didn't know...the world was void. I couldn't say it was black or white or even gray. I couldn't even grasp for a color in this world. I had the distinct feeling there was no definable _color_ in this world at all. I finally stood. I started as I felt a weight on my head. I tried to swat it away, entertaining the ridiculous notion that it was some sort of huge spiderweb. I cursed when I realized it was hair. My blonde hair. I squished my cheeks with my hands, and the skin was too rough to be asari. I was human! Why did that upset me so? I shook my head. There were too many questions and not enough answers. Where was this? Was this death? An eternity of waiting in nothingness and losing your mind to nonexistent pyjaks? If so, why hadn't I gotten an endless ocean of the afterlife or something? I shivered. Now that I listened, I had the feeling that I was, in fact, not alone at all. The silence had a character. The air had tension.

At the risk of sounding like an idiot in a world where no one could hear me being an idiot, I called out. "Who are you?" Huge bluish green lights blinked into existence around me, and I felt the undeniable sensation of being watched. It was more than that. I was being studied. I tried to look into those orbs of light. I felt a mind probing mine, and I couldn't block it out, no matter what I tried.

A deep voice that shook my very soul with ungodly rumbling answered me back. "I AM...THE...ONE..." One of those terrible Reaper wail/foghorn sounds blasted around me, and I clutched my ears to try to escape it. The blue lights grew to consume me.

"Keelah se'lai!" I gasped, screwing my eyes shut in fear. A hand grasped my shoulder, and I peeked my eye open to see who it was. My eyes then flew open. "Kolyat..."

He looked worried. "Are you alright?" I looked around. I was in the hospital, lying on a gurney. And there were no Reapers anywhere near. I double checked.

I nodded. "Yeah...you?"

He blinked. "Um, yeah?" He looked weird, as if something was wrong.

I furrowed my brow. "What? Do I have hair?!"

He looked shocked. "What? No! Why would you have hair?"

I shook my head. "Um...no reason...What's wrong then?"

He bit his lip, an action I did frequently, but one I had never seen him preform. "Teleya, you were out for four days."

I sat up. "What?! Four days?" How had it been that freaking long?! My dream was pretty much two seconds long! "Wha-what about you?"

He pushed off the gurney and turned to look out the window. "No, I was fine." He paused, and then turned his head to give me a sharp look. "How could you do what you did, Teleya?"

It wasn't a casual question. His tone was obvious. He was mad. I glared back. "What do you mean how could I do that?! Did you want me to let you die?"

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, I just...you could've died, Teleya. You almost did. I would've had to live with that. Knowing that you died because I wasn't careful enough!"

I softened my voice a little. "I know I could've died. Heck, the doctor told me that on multiple occasions. What was I supposed to do though, Kolyat? Let you die? I can't speak for you, but I know you're more than a co-worker to me. You're a friend. I wasn't going to lose you. Besides, was I supposed to just tell your father that you died because I wasn't quick enough to save you? He would've flayed me alive!" We both smiled at that, though we both knew Thane would never do such a thing. I think Kolyat realized where I was coming from though, and maybe even how much he meant to his father. I struggled up from the gurney, stubbornly refusing help. "I've been lying down too long. I need to walk around."

After convincing an angry doctor that I was fine, he told me I could go, but that I needed to rest over the next week. I was fine with that. Kolyat and I strolled around the Presidium in comfortable silence. After a few hours, I got tired. Maybe I did need a little rest. I wasn't about to admit it though, I loved walking around the trees and the water. The aru trees were blooming now, which I pointed out to Kolyat, who just smiled oddly. I picked a small flower off and rolled it in my fingers, enjoying the fragrance. It was a shame asari didn't have ears you could tuck flowers behind. In the end I dropped it into the reservoir, knowing it would be filtered out. I watched it float down until a pink dot collided with blue far down, and then continued on.

Kolyat sort of headed back to my apartment, and I knew he had noticed my sluggish pace and sagging form. When we got there, I just collapsed onto my couch mumbling something about being hungry. "Do you...want a sandwich?" Not even needing to ask what kind, I nodded. He headed off to the kitchen, and I wondered just how long it would take the drell to figure out how to make it.

I thought about my dream while I lazed on my sofa. That big thing saying it was...the one? The one what? The one that did what? I didn't know. It made a Reaper sound, but I had never seen a Reaper like that before. I didn't even know why I had been human. It felt so real. I felt like the little girl I had been before this. I had lost my confidence and my biotics. I felt so alone and small, and the painful thing was realizing that I _had_ been that way before. That was the person I really was. And the memories. The foreign memories of my human self had flooded in my mind so quickly I hadn't noticed. There weren't many memories, but just a few...like one of a birthday party I had...at the beach with my mother. My real mother. Lucy. Mom.

All of a sudden, I felt tears blossoming down my face as I watched a sort of memory movie reel of my mother bringing out the birthday cake and smiling. She sang and she laughed. How had I forgotten that? How had I forgotten her? Why hadn't I remembered these things sooner after my dream? It was like I had turned into myself for a short while and felt what it would have felt like to be trapped here if I was actually me. I sniffed. I missed my mom. My real one. I could already feel the memory fading away, overcome by my fake ones of Thessian skies. I wanted her back, but already the want for her was leaving, and that made me sadder than ever.

"Teleya?" Kolyat's apprehensive voice came from beside me, where he was standing awkwardly with a PB&J on a plate. I sat up to make room for him on the couch and patted the cushion to show him he should sit. He did, and I took the plate from him, though I was too upset to eat. "Do you, ah, want to talk about what's wrong?" I wanted to facepalm. He was being so awkward! He really wasn't so good with this people person stuff.

I decided to indulge him for that reason; he was going outside of his comfort zone to try and make me feel better. "I miss my mother so much." Of course he thought I was talking about Weania. I suppose a small part of me was talking about her too. "I mean, all of the things she used to do for me, and the songs she would sing and the way she would make my bed for me and...just...every little thing she did I miss, and I'll miss it forever. I'll never see her again."

He was silent for awhile. "I know." It was all he said. It was all he needed to say.

I smiled painfully. "I remember, she used to make me these sandwiches all the time. My mother was never one for cooking, and it was one of the only things she could make well. I was so sick of it! I told her I hated them." I laughed softly through my tears. "And now, I guess I eat them when I...when I feel alone..." Keelah that sounded stupid, like the only friend I had in the universe was a sandwich. Who was the awkward one now?

He was fiddling his fingers, like he was slightly nervous. "I remember...when I was younger, my mother would be at the school when it got out. She would walk with me back to our house." He looked down to his hands, unmoving now. "One day...one day she wasn't there." I bit my lip. Oh keelah...I never knew how he found his mother. By the goddess I hope he didn't see her. "So I walked home alone. When I got to the house there were...doctors. A neighbor had reported a disturbance. They were bringing her out on a gurney..."

His voice was cut off by a gasp and for a split second I was surprised. Then I remembered. Crap. "Small hand drooping. Lifeless. Hands grasp for me, but I run ahead. Blood on the floor. The curtains. The bed. 'Mother! Wake up!' Small hand holds the larger one. 'Why won't you wake up?'" By that time my lip was already bleeding where I had bit it, and fresh tears were dribbling down my raw cheeks.

I had no words. I honestly had no idea what to say, so I stole one of Shepard's lines, albeit with more stuttering. "I-I'm so sorry, Kolyat...I...didn't mean to make you relive that..."

He had his head in his hands for a moment, but when he looked up, I could see small tracks of tears on his face. My gosh. I'd never seen a guy cry in front of me before, well, except in Thane's loyalty mission. It was sort of weird to me. Someone in the real world had once told me something...something like, 'it isn't weak to cry. It takes a strong man to show his emotions plainly and not hide them.'

He didn't seem to know what to say either, so he stole a line from his father. "Forgive me, drell slip into memories so easily." It was literally word for word. He stood up. "If you'll excuse me..." With that he headed out the door, leaving me so stunned I couldn't even form the words to ask him to stop.

* * *

I was lying on the floor, stomach full of a strangely unfulfilling PB&J sandwich. I wish I hadn't done that to Kolyat...I never had seen him have a memory like that, and I guess I just kind of forgot that drell did that...I sighed. I hope he was okay. I thought about going after him, but I changed my mind. Unlike girls, guys actually want to be alone when they storm off to be alone. So, here I was, on the floor, bored out of my wits, feeling terrible, and exhausted but too worried to sleep. My omni-tool beeped, making me jump, but I answered it after a small moment of shock. I was secretly hoping it was Kolyat. It wasn't, but it was Mez'Ralah.

_M-Hey, what's up?_

_T-Nothin' much. I just sort of...made my partner leave because I was stupid. You?_

_M-Oh, I'm not doing much of anything. What happened with you two, and I didn't know you had a partner..._

_T-OH! It's not like that! We're not together or anything, he's just my C-Sec partner...anyway...I sort of made him remember something terrible...it's a long story. You wanna meet some place? It would be easier to talk there._

_M-Sounds good. Where?_

_T-Um...how about that little turian bar? What's it called? Oh, Sharshi Pub._

_M-Cool. See you there in ten. You should find your partner and bring him... ;)_

_T-*eye roll* See you._

I sighed. Before I could leave, I realized I really needed to change out of my four day old uniform...I peeked inside my dresser to look for something to wear at a club. Hmmm...most of my clothes were unbearably casual. My mother had gotten me a small dress, though. I had never worn it. All in all, I was feeling sort of crappy, and figured a bit of dressing up might cheer me up. I did feel sort of gross though, so I messaged Mez and told her I would be five minutes late, and then took a quick shower. I threw my dress on, grabbed a pair of black flats (heels are not aloud in my house), and put on my mother's old necklace. It had been a present from her bondmate. She had been wearing it when she died...and when I was asked to identify the body, they gave it back to me. A part of me felt weird for wearing it, but my mother would have liked it I suppose. It was a small black opal set in silver metal that wrapped around the jewel to hold it it, attached to a thin silver chain. It was simple, but my mother always told me she loved it that way. I smiled at my reflection. The dress I was wearing was black, and went to my knees. The top had a long neck that went to my jaw, but instead of being closed like many asari dresses, it was open, going down low enough to show my necklace. Simple but nice. Perfect for going to a bar at night. I grabbed a black handbag and put my datapad and my credit chit inside. I bit my lip, and slipped my hand cannon inside too. They didn't check for weapons at the bar, and I was a creature of habit. With that, I slipped out of the door.

I was halfway down the stairs when I doubled back. I quickly grabbed one of Kolyat's old notes from the red sand thing and jotted down a note on the back.

_Kolyat_

_Am out with a friend._

_-T_

Just in case he came back when I was out...like he would. I snatched a transport to the bar. A beeping on my omni-tool alerted me to a message.

_M-You're late._

I sighed and smiled. Ever the punctual one she was...


	8. Chapter 7: The Sneaking Suspicion

_**Thanks to all who reviewed! It made me write through a particularly bad patch of writer's block. Wow! Over 1,000 views! This is cause for a celebration. CHEESE FOR EVERYONE! Hmm...well...virtual cheese...**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own ME! **_

The pub's loud music echoed through the hall I was in, even with its door shut. I sighed, holding my purse up. I had wanted to do this, but now, I wasn't so sure. I was supposed to be resting form my ordeal with bright lights, loud noises, and distant memories, and I was just diving into another version of pretty much the same thing. The door opened, and the noise level doubled. The turian who walked out gave my a polite nod as he passed by, and I knew I looked stupid just standing smack in the middle of the walkway. _Now's as good a time as ever._ I stepped in, smiling at the guard and making my way to the table in the back. It was Mez's favorite table. I liked it because it was the quietest, and I didn't get as many hungry stares. That was the hardest thing to get used to in this body, the looks men, and some woman, gave me. I suppose that's why I didn't really like dressing up. I had a small feeling that Teleya hadn't liked it either, and Jane never really got that sort of attention. A thing I liked about this bar was the fact that it didn't have asari dancers, which I always thought was awkward. I remembered facing the camera to its extreme down position whenever I was in Afterlife when my parents were inside. I spotted Mez chatting with a turian waiter, and she waved me over when she caught sight of me. I sat down at the table, facing the entrance. It was a habit Mez had pointed out to me, that I hadn't realized. Jane had done it too. I supposed I just wanted to see who came in, but I always studied every newcomer, to see if they posed any kind of threat..._wow, I feel like Javik_...anyway... "Hey! I was beginning to think you would never show up. I already ordered your usual for you." I smiled at her, and then the turian next to her. I didn't need to look at him for more than a second to recognize the look he gave her. I gave him one of my own.

He gathered the menus quickly after that. "I'll be right back with your drinks."

Mez just shook her head. "You do that to every guy who's interested in me."

I laughed. "Well, you yourself said that you don't want to be in a relationship while you're on your pilgrimage. How's that going, by the way?"

She just smiled; I was beginning to read her emotions through the way she moved or talked. "Ah, normal. Still saving up credits, but I haven't found anything really good yet." She shrugged. "It's nice to have someone look after me." She gave me a concentrated look. "But who looks after you?" I sighed, and almost said 'Kolyat', but knew she would get all girly after that...so I just shrugged. "She crossed her arms. "What about this 'partner' of yours? Is he cute?"

I just gave her tiny glare. "He's my co-worker, okay?" It wasn't really an answer, but it was the only one I could think to voice. Besides, I didn't really know what drell classified as attractive. I suppose he sort of was...handsome.

She shrugged. "Whatever you say." It was then that the waiter came back with our drinks, not saying a word in the exchange. I smirked when I realized that he probably thought that _we_ were together. Mez had gotten a mild turian ale. She didn't like to get intoxicated heavily; she said it could be dangerous for a quarian to be caught unawares in an environment that wanted to kill them. I couldn't argue with that. I always ordered a kind of asari tea. In this world, I was way old enough to drink, but in mine, I would still be about 18 counting the years I spent here, and some part of my morality told me I shouldn't drink. Mez bothered me about it, but I just told her I didn't like to be compromised. That, coupled with the fact that I was overprotective of the quarian and liked to sit in the position where I could view the door probably made Mez think I was too uptight. I was just careful here. I may not be on Omega, but after the Geth attack, I wasn't going to be caught unawares again.

She continued her train of thought, unfazed by my aloofness. "So, what happened to you guys tonight? You fight? And also, why didn't you respond for the past few days? Were you busy?" She sipped her drink through a straw, much like Tali did when she got drunk in one of the games. I held my cup in my hand. The handle wasn't big enough for me to slip my palm into and wrap around the cup like I liked to do, which saddened me slightly whenever I ordered it here, but it was still comfortingly warm against my other hand. I blew on it and took a small drink. It was the only asari thing I ever regularly ingested, I noted wryly, even though I was one here. It tasted like Earl Gray, probably why I liked it so.

"I was in the hospital for four days." I said like I was commenting on the weather. I decided to get this one over with first.

She gasped. "Keelah! What happened?"

I smiled. I always liked it when Tali exclaimed 'Keelah', and I suppose that's why I adopted the saying in the first place. "Nothing much, to me anyway. My partner was attacked, and his brainwave patterns were damaged. I melded with him to fix the damage and woke up four days later—today."

"Oh." She was silent for a moment, and I knew she was thinking to herself, deciding what she was going to say next. She was a very inward person like that. I liked that about her. You always got the feeling that whatever she said was carefully chosen for the circumstance. I suppose that's why I wanted her company tonight. "I'm glad you're okay...but, don't asari meld to...you know..."

My eyes widened and I spluttered on my drink. "Goddess, Mez! Yes we meld to reproduce, but we can also use it to pass on information and such. It was not like that, I swear."

She held up her hands. "Okay, okay!" She narrowed her eyes. "But you did get very defensive when I mentioned it..."

I sighed. I was defensive, but people get that way when they're embarrassed, and that last comment did leave me very flustered. "Well the question you asked was slightly embarrassing. Plus, I can's see us like that." I shook my head. Truly, I could never see Kolyat being like that towards me...

"Uh-huh." She didn't look convinced.

I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, he walked me home and made me a sandwich..." I religiously ignored the cooing noises my companion was making. "Then we talked about my dead mother. Very romantic, huh?" I chuckled darkly. "Anyway, he's a drell, and they have vivid memories. They can't forget anything. They can have memory flashes that are as real as, well, reality. He remembered the time when he saw his dead mother and he sort of left after that and I felt horrible. Anyway...after Kolyat left you messaged me, I messaged back, and here we are. No romance."

She put her half finished drink down. "Keelah, he walked you home and make you a sandwich. Not only is he a gentleman, but he must like you." Before I had time to refute her statement my brain thought about what she said. Well, I wouldn't say he was a 'gentleman' from what I saw in the games, and Thane had told Shepard that he was temperamental. He wasn't around me...and he was occasionally a gentleman. Hmmm...I wonder if I made him act differently or something...? But why? "So you said he's a Drell?"

Her soft voice cut through my musings. "What? Oh, Yeah. Why?"

She chuckled. "Because one just walked in the door."

I suspect all color drained from my face. How had I missed that? I peeked over at him. Yup it was Kolyat. "Keelah se'lai..." I pressed a palm to my forehead.

"So it is him?!" She asked excitedly.

"Yeah..." I muttered. "That's Kolyat..."

She clapped her hands happily. "Oh, that's so cute! He went to look for you!"

I bit my lip. "Maybe he just randomly showed up here."

She shook her head gleefully. "Nope, he's coming over here."

I looked her straight in the mask. "Mez'Ralah, we are not like that okay, so don't say anything. Oh! Talk to me!" I whispered the last part. Why was I acting like a giddy schoolgirl? It was just Kolyat. But Mez seemed to be under the impression that we had a future together, which was undeniably awkward.

"But...we _are_ talking..." I wanted to facepalm. Before I had a chance to whisper something else to her urgently, Kolyat's voice came deeply and softly over my shoulder.

"I'm sorry if I am interrupting, but I owe an apology to Teleya." It was mostly to Mez.

She stood up, and I fought the urge to grab her arm and yank her back down. "Oh, it's okay. I was just leaving. I have to get some sleep for work tomorrow. I'm Mez'Ralah, by the way. Nice to meet you!" I stared at her wide eyed as she smiled at me and left. I was going to _kill_ her. Kolyat sat down in the chair across from me. We were silent for awhile, him staring at me, and me twiddling my thumbs. The thick silence was starting to choke me.

"I'm sorry." I stated, to get the conversation going.

He chuckled, causing me to frown at him. "You're sorry? I'm the one who should be sorry. I just walked out. _And_ I made it awkward."

I shook my head. "It's not like you wanted to. Just...don't apologize for something that's not your fault."

He smirked his little Kolyat smirk. "That's rich, coming from you."

I sighed, and then decided to smile. "No more apologies, okay?"

He laughed. "I'll remember that one." I laughed at that too, our mirth dispelling the awkward air. I glanced around the club, taking note of all the other happy people. Happy couples. My cheeks turned a tad darker at that thought, along with a small stab of loneliness that I tried to dispel. "You look nice." I froze at the compliment, some part of my feminine soul jumping in elation that a guy had said that, and some part of my practical one burning in embarrassment.

"Oh, ah, thanks..." I squeezed out, breathless.

He studied me closer, whether trying to read me or studying the growing purple on my cheeks, I didn't know. "Thank you." His voice murmured softly. I tipped my head to the side in a quiet question. "For saving my life." He supplied. I didn't say anything, feeling that a 'you're welcome' would be a little cheap.

I smiled, deciding to change the subject. "You talk with your father lately?"

He shrugged. "I haven't had time, but I know I should." I nodded approvingly. He glanced to the glass beside his hand. "So...where did you meet your friend?"

I furrowed my brow. "Oh, Mez? Grys was giving her a hard time in an investigation because she was a quarian, so I told him to bug off. Turns out she was innocent. Turian bosh'tet...anyway, she's on her pilgrimage." When Kolyat became confused, I decided to explain further. "Since the quarians live on ships together they are constantly in need of new materials. So, in a coming of age ceremony, they go on a pilgrimage to look for something of value to take back to the flotilla. They can't go back until they have something that could help the ships or the race as a whole." He nodded, a considerate look coming over his face. "What is it?" I asked, curious.

He shrugged. "Bailey confiscated some out of date heating unit stabilizers from a volus engineer. They were too old for the Citadel, but...well, your friend might want them. There are quite a lot of them, and they are heavy duty."

I was suddenly alight with excitement. "I have to go talk to Bailey!"

He chuckled. "I believe he wanted to see you anyway."

I stood up, energized. "I'm going to talk to him right away, and you sir need to talk with your father."

He leaned back and gave me a one finger salute. "Yes ma'am." I smiled and hurried out of the pub, unaware of the drell's soft eyes following my departure.

* * *

"Hi Bailey!" I chirped, startling the Captian. He looked up to me, first confused, and then relieved.

"Teleya. How ya' doin' kid."

I smiled. "Just fine, Captain. I'm actually here about some heating unit stabilizers..."

He furrowed his brow. "Those old things? They're practically garbage. What do you need with 'em?"

I shrugged. "Well, if you aren't going to be using them, I know someone who might need them. Not for use on the Citadel."

He studied me briefly. "Consider them yours."

I bit my lip. I couldn't just give them to Mez. She would never accept them. She needed to earn this. "Um...actually, Captain, I was wondering if there was any tech help you needed, you know in exchange. The person who needs them will want to work for it."

He thought for a moment. I hoped there was something Mez could do. I suppose if there wasn't I could just sell them to her, but I thought she would like to use her expertise to get something. "Well, thinking about it, I was wanting someone to get in here and help find holes in our security programs to see if they can be exploited. If your friend can do that, it's a deal."

I grinned. "Perfect, Captain. I'll talk to her right away." I started to go, but Bailey called after me.

"I'm glad you're alive."

I smirked. "Me too." On my way out of the dock, I messaged Mez.

_T-Hey Mez, I need to talk to you._

I knew she might already be asleep, so I wasn't expecting a reply. Just as I was about to call a transport, I felt a hand on my arm. My stomach leaped in surprise, but quieted when I realized it was just Syrran. "Oh, hi Syrran."

"Yeah, um, listen. I want to say sorry for snapping at you and everything. I was really worried about you when you were in the hospital. I just...don't know what I would do if I didn't have you around."

I smiled. That was nice of him to say. "Um, thanks, Syrran. I'm glad that you didn't get hurt in all of this."

He grinned turian style. "Yeah. Well, I was wondering...would you like to maybe go get a d-"

He was abruptly cut off by my partner's voice behind him. "Hello, Lieutenant. How is your evening?"

Syrran turned to him, and I didn't need to be a Prothean to feel the tension in the air. "Better a second ago." I wanted to smack him.

Kolyat blinked. "I'm sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do?" I knew his voice well enough to know that he was being anything but polite.

Syrran put a hand on my shoulder, startling me. "Leave us alone when we're having a private conversation."

Kolyat crossed his arms. Goddess I hated male posturing. "I was not aware that talking as loud as a mating Krogan constituted a private conversation." My eyes widened involuntarily and I would've facepalmed if I wasn't so tense. I glanced around to see if there were any krogan in the vicinity. There weren't, thank the goddess. In fact there wasn't really anyone around, except for the door lady—another blessing. Syrran stepped away from me, standing up taller. In return, Kolyat straightened up and flickered a light blue. I couldn't believe my eyes, were they really going to fight?! Before it could get any worse I jumped between them, pushing both backwards with a pulse of blue.

"What is wrong with you two? Seriously? Why are you acting like...like...children?!" I shook my head and started walking to Mez's apartment, not wanting to wait around for a transport. Neither of them followed me, and I didn't really mind. Syrran was just starting to be nice again, and then he said the first really rude thing in the conversation. Kolyat and I had just had a nice evening, and then he had to go along with Syrran's little bloodlust. Gah. Men.

* * *

I knocked on Mez's door a few times, feeling bad for waking her up. When she opened the door she was groggy and slow, but she let me in anyway. "What do you need at this hour? Unless that Kolyat of yours kissed you or something, I don't want to hear it."

Despite myself, I laughed. "No, nothing like that. I do have some news that could help your pilgrimage, though."

She sat down beside me, still tired, but intently listening. "Really? What is it?"

"Well, the precinct confiscated some, and by some I mean a lot, of heating unit stabilizers. They aren't aloud on the Citadel because they're an old model, but I figured the Flotilla might need them."

She sighed. "That's great and all, but I want to do something for my Pilgrimage, not just take from someone."

I smiled. "Of course. The Captain said he would trade some help for them."

She tilted her head. "What kind of help?"

I shrugged. "He needs someone to try to access the security programs and test their firewalls and find weaknesses and stuff. You can do that, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I should be able to do that. I'm pretty good at hacking."

I smiled. "Good. I can take you there in the morning." I paused. "Can I stay here?"

She frowned. "Sure, but, why?"

I sighed. "I want to avoid both Kolyat and a turian named Syrran."

She was all ears. "Why?"

I sighed again. "Well, Syrran was talking to me. I think he wanted to go have a drink. Then, Kolyat comes up and says hi, Syrran says something rude, then Kolyat said something rude back. They would've started a fight if I hadn't broken them up. I just don't get why guys do that..."

That was when Mez did something I hadn't expected her to do; she laughed. She laughed so hard she fell over onto the couch. I just frowned and crossed my arms, waiting for her to have enough air to talk to me. "Wow..." she giggled. "Just...wow...I can't believe you don't see it!"

I growled. "See what?"

She did something with her suit, though I don't know what. Maybe laughing had brought tears to her eyes and she was filtering them out or something. "You are one of the smartest people I know on the Citadel, but you can't see that Kolyat is sooo in love with you."

I flushed blue. "W-what? He is not!"

She chuckled. "Really? Then why did he interrupt someone when they were about to ask you out, and then pick a fight with them. Those guys were fighting over _you _Teleya!"

I was silent. No, that wasn't right...It really couldn't be right. This was all weird. In the end, I decided I was too tired to think about this any longer. "Well, can I stay here or not?"

The frustrated quarian threw her arms up. She wasn't going to get a confession of love out of me. "Fine, you can, but I'm telling you, Teleya T'Leri, those men are in love with you. You might have to choose between them one day."

She went and got me a blanket, and I camped out on the couch. I didn't speak for the rest of the night, even when Mez'Ralah said goodnight. I though about that question. Who would I choose. I wasn't acknowledging that she was right, but...if I had to choose. I had known Syrran longer. Kolyat...he was my partner. I trusted him. I wrestled with that question for quite awhile. Before sleep finally took my torn consciousness, I realized with slight surprise that in my heart, I did, had, and will always choose...

_Kolyat_

* * *

_Kolyat,_

_I haven't got a message back yet. If you sent one, I didn't receive it. We have not yet gone through the Omega 4 Relay. Shepard wishes the crew to make peace before we do, much like I did. She is taking the ship wherever the crew needs to go, without question. She thinks of the crew before the mission. I have found that she is a remarkable human. I have seen no one like her before. She puts everything before herself without a selfish thought. It is truly an honor to serve under someone like her. I think the chances of my surviving the mission have gone up because of her. I worry about you Kolyat. I hope you are settling in well on the Citadel, and that you are getting along well with Lt. Commander T'Leri. Please reply soon, Kolyat. Even with Shepard on our side, this mission is still going to be a suicidal undertaking. _

_-Thane_

* * *

_Father,_

_I am glad we still have time to talk, although this surprised me. I am sorry I haven't replied back. Things have been...hectic...here. I am fine now, but I was in the hospital for a short time. I went undercover to expose a Red Sand ring in the Wards. I made it to the leader, but was attacked. I...can't remember much, but I know that he trapped me in a force field and then...did something to me to mess up my brainwaves. T'Leri killed him. She did something...melded with me to fix the damage. She was in a coma for a few days, but is fine now. She is the one that encouraged me to write. I...recalled a memory in front of her. It was when I found mother. I don't know if I ever told you this, but when she wasn't there to walk with me home from school, I walked by myself. I saw her on the gurney...she was so bloody...I asked her to wake up, but she didn't...I was embarrassed for putting the Lt through that. I left after that, although I searched for T'Leri to apologize. I hope we can talk more, and that your mission is successful. As to the questions in the previous letter, I do have a place on the Citadel, in the Wards, and I am fine. Until we can talk again..._

_-Kolyat_

**_In case you can't already tell, Thane romances Shepard in this, which is why he is slightly out of character and talking about her a lot in his letter. Anyway, I can't read minds through the computer, even though that would be awesome. I suspect that is why they created this review button located conveniently next to the end of the chapter... ;P Really though, reviews are one of the best things to get as a writer, as I'm sure some of you know. It helps my writing process tons, and I'm not just saying that to make you guys push the button:)_**

**_Next Chapter split into two parts for dramatic effect, so don't get mad when the next 'chapter' is really puny. The other half is bigger._**


	9. Chapter 8 Pt 1: The Abduction

_**Again, sorry for the shortness...I'll Post the second part soon. Thanks elidan1012 for reviewing:)**_

_**Nope, still don't own ME. I double checked.**_

Mez'Ralah nar Rayya was wringing her hands together nervously as we walked to the precinct. "Are you sure this is going to work? I mean, I'm a quarian and..."

"Relax..." I placed a hand on her arm. "Of course this is going to work. Bailey is a good guy."

She nodded. "Okay, if you say so..." I was all too aware of the fact that I was still in my black dress from the other night, not having time to change earlier and Mez not having anything I could wear. I hadn't been able to eat either, as the only food that my quarian friend had was dextro-amino. I loved the universe's diversity, just not when it cost me breakfast. However the difference between the two types of amino proteins were fascinating. Something about rotating a different way or being 'left handed' or 'right handed.' All in all it was very interesting, but I couldn't really remember it all the way. Anyway, I was just going to drop Mez off and then head to my apartment to change and stuff.

We were outside the door to the precinct and I put a hand on the quarian's shoulder.

"It's going to be fine, Mez." She did take in a breath, and then nodded to me. We walked in together, greeted by Bailey.

"Mornin' Teleya. Is this the friend you mentioned?" Bailey looked to Mez.

I nodded. "Yup." I nudged her with my elbow.

She stumbled for ward, and then held out a trembling hand. Bailey knew just how to act then. He really did have a switch in him that turned him into some fatherly guy. He shook it and smiled. "H-hi..." She stuttered. "I'm Mez'Ralah nar Rayya. Um...Teleya mentioned something about finding weaknesses in your systems?"

He nodded. "Yes ma'am. If you could just try various ways to access our servers, or our classified documents, and find any holes there may be, I would be very grateful." He guided her over to his desk by the small of her back.

She leaned over to look at his monitor. She brought up her omni-tool and tapped at it. "I see...there you are..." She seemed to remember us then. "Oh...um...I'll just sit over here..." She went over to the counter and hopped up on it, diligently tapping her way through the systems.

I smiled at Bailey, then said loud enough for both to hear, "I'm going back to my apartment to freshen up. I'll come back to check up on you two later." Bailey nodded but Mez said nothing, already absorbed in her work. I rolled my eyes and headed to the rapid transport. While I was typing in the location, a tap on my shoulder made me turn around. I sighed. "Good morning, Kolyat."

"You were not at home last night. I attempted to apologize but I didn't know where you were."

I smiled at that, feeling a little bad that I had tried to hide from him. "Yeah, I stayed at Mez's last night. She's doing work for Bailey in exchange for the stabilizers."

He nodded, and then bowed his head. "About last night..." I interrupted him by putting my hands on his shoulders.

"Kolyat, you needn't say anything. I wasn't ever really that angry at you anyway, just frustrated by males as a whole."

He blinked. "Thanks...I think."

I laughed. "You know what? I think I'm going to walk home today. I don't need to use public transport!"

"Do you want me to escort you?"

I blushed. "Oh, no, you don't have to. You have duties. I'll be fine." I nodded to him. "See you later!" I started to walk away, towards the old elevators, when something turned me around. I ran back to him, and called out to him. "Kolyat! Kolyat!" He turned around, raising an eyebrow. I stood on my tippie toes and put my arms around his neck. It wasn't a quick hug like when he came back during the Red Sand case. I stood there for a moment, and his arms slowly wrapped around me. I pulled away and looked into his confused eyes, remembering the thoughts I fell asleep with the other night. "Thanks for looking out for me." I turned away and left the speechless drell to his own devices, a smirk on my face and a light in my heart.

* * *

I walked along the Wards, through the residential areas. It was actually quiet today. Nothing stirred. I was walking past an alleyway when a cold voice accosted me. "Step into the alley, asari, and I won't shoot the child." My blood instantly ran as cold as ice. I turned my head slowly to see a krogan in full armor holding a gun to a small turian girl. She was trembling and clutching a small stuffed...well I didn't know what it was, and I didn't know how the krogan had got the girl, but that didn't matter at the moment—saving her life did. I nodded slowly and walked into the alleyway. I couldn't really hit the krogan with biotics without possibly hitting the girl, and if I missed him, he would probably shoot her, in the leg maybe, as he would still need leverage. I followed him deep into the alleyway.

I didn't know what my kidnapper might do if I talked, but I decided to risk it. "Hey, little one. Everything's going to be just fine." The krogan laughed, and her lip trembled. I looked straight at the krogan, but still talked to the girl. "You're going to be brave and make it out of this okay, because I'm going to do everything this krogan wants, understand? And you're going to go home and not tell your parents about any of this." She nodded. I sighed in relief. Maybe now they wouldn't hunt her down as a loose end or something. The krogan nodded too, seeming to get my point. A transport vehicle then squeezed into the alley from above and opened up. No one was inside. Automated with exact coordinates. Who wanted to kidnap me so much that they would plan this whole thing out like this? The krogan threw the girl away towards the mouth of the alley, but still had his gun trained on her.

"Get in." I nodded, and moved slowly, to not provoke him. However, it seemed I did not move fast enough. "Too slow!" He grabbed my arm and slammed me into the wall. I heard the girl scream and run away. The krogan leveled the gun at her, but I threw a quick barrier between the girl and us, and the bullet simply splashed against the purple biotic wall. I swiped the gun out of his hand and crushed it with a warp. He roared with rage. Well, I suppose this would be a good time to see if my kidnapper needed me alive or not. He slammed me against the wall again, before I had time to throw anything else at him. My head cracked against the wall and I began seeing double, too disoriented to use any biotics now. He raised me up by my neck and I grasped onto his hand to hold myself up in an attempt to ease the pain. "You're lucky my boss needs you alive asari!" He literally chucked me into the back of the skycar, and it was all I could do to claw my way up to a sitting position to try and do...well, I had no idea; I could barely see. He roared with laughter. Just before my splitting headache yanked away my consciousness, I heard a voice yell out to me.

It was Kolyat's voice, I knew this. It confused me, though I couldn't remember why. He was always there when I needed him. It was tinged with worry, despair and desperation. It was also smothered in some deep and profound emotion I had not yet heard his gravelly voice employ. I saw his form running towards me, trying to rescue me, and I saw his lips move before I heard the word. It was one word that slammed into my pained intelligence and sent a fire through my veins. It almost brought me back to reality. Back to him. Just. One. Word.

"_**SIHA!"**_


	10. Chapter 8 Pt 2: The Rescue

**_And now the conclusion..._**

**_Disclaimer: I don't own ME_**

_Kolyat,_

_We are going to go through the Omega 4 Relay. Shepard is giving us time to send out our last goodbyes. We are drifting around the relay, and will be doing so for the next 24 hours. I have something important to tell you, Kolyat, and I do not want you to dismiss it, though I know you will be angry with me. There is no point in dancing around the subject. Your mother was the most beautiful and loving and fierce woman I ever met. She helped bind my body and soul, and without her I was never whole. When she died, a part of me died as well. I would never again see that light in her eyes, or her protective love, or her undying determination. I was certain of this. Until I met Kathryn Shepard. In her I see the light in Irikah's eyes and the same love and determination. She has given purpose to me, and she gave me you. I never thought I would be graced with the honor of another Siha, but I know Irikah is in this, smiling in the deep oceans of Kalahira. She is not your mother, Kolyat, nor can she replace her, but she fills the part of me that I have been without for years. I needed to tell you that, before we go through the relay. Whatever happens, my beloved son, I have always loved you and will always love you, no matter the outcome of this mission. And if I do not return, I will be watching over you from the watery embrace of Kalahira. It is a last request of mine that you visit with the drell priests on Kahje, as I have not had the opportunity to before coming on this mission. Our religion is what strengthens our people, and without it, we are disconnected. If you are going to reply, you must do it in 24 hours, before we go through the relay. I beg of you, Kolyat, please reply._

_-May Kalahira guide you,_

_your loving father._

* * *

I blinked my eyes open, and my first thought, oddly enough, went along these unsteady lines—_When I see Mez'Ralah next, she is going to rub in the 'I told you so.'_ I shook my head, and told myself getting out of here was more important than what Kolyat had said, though I didn't really believe it. I was wearing small holographic cuffs that bound my hands, and was alone in a black room. I couldn't see any doors or windows, and I felt that the room was very small. I also felt odd, but I couldn't pinpoint why. I frowned, and tried to form a biotic skin on my hands. As soon as I did though, it sputtered out and the now glowing cuffs shocked my wrists rather harshly. "Keelah!" I gasped. The cuffs stopped my biotics! I had never heard of something like that in Mass Effect. I tried not to move my hands much, as my now raw wrists didn't like the chafing of the cuffs. I pushed myself up with my legs and hobbled about the room to ascertain it's dimensions. I bumped into a wall about two meters away, and then another. The spartan room was a square of two meters on each side. I leaned against the wall, knowing my answers would only come from the man who kidnapped me. I didn't think it was the krogan; he was too stupid. I couldn't feel my omni-tool on me, but of course they would take it away. I just hope they didn't deactivate it. Every officer's tool had a tracking device in it, in case they needed to be found, though I had an idea my attacker knew this. I sighed, and let my thoughts drift backwards as I let my cheek press against the cool metal of my cage. I thought back to Kolyat. How had he found me? Maybe he had secretly followed me to make sure I was safe. I thought back to what he had said...that one word.

_Siha._

He had called me Siha, and a part of my soul blossomed with this knowledge, though the other part whispered that I was going to die here. Ah, the charms of the internal dialogue. Mez was right. He loved me. It might seem funny, but with this knowledge, I realized that I let my soul roam. I had always kept myself closed in with him. I knew how he was, at least from what I heard in the game, and I never thought he could ever call anyone siha, let alone me. The idea that he did love me...it delighted me...and scared me. I mean, he knew my weaknesses and the worst parts of my being, and he still called me that. His angel warrior...I shook my head. What kind of warrior am I? I'm stuck in a cage with no way out, and I didn't feel like a _siha._ But he didn't know who I really was...I wasn't Teleya and I wasn't asari. He was in love with someone I wasn't.

I bit my lip and looked upwards into the darkness. _Keelah, I'm thinking about all of this, but how do I feel about him? _I guess I hadn't really allowed myself to think of that, seeing as I never thought he could reciprocate...I suppose though, that I had always felt a certain way about him. I remembered to when he had come during the Red Sand case, after I had been with Syrran for a few days. I had jumped at him, so glad to see him again. It was then that I realized how much I could miss him, even after the course of just a few days. His smirk, his humor, and his stoic emotions all made my heart...fuzzy. It wasn't a feeling I could readily describe—at least not very well. So...was that love? I...didn't know. Teleya, believe it or not, had ever felt that way for someone, and neither had Jane. Despite myself, I chuckled. I was going to die in here, wasn't I? I was going to die and then I'll never know. I shook my head. I'd better wait it out and see who wanted me here.

That's exactly what I did. The darkness closed in on me while I sat in my corner, trying and failing to meditate. Without being able to access the pool of energy within me, I wasn't accomplishing anything. It still sort of got my mind off of things, though. After what seemed like an eternity, the door to the room thudded open, and someone entered. I could feel his boots against the cold floor and see the lights on his armor. From where they cut off and started up, I got the feeling he was a turian. When he spoke, the distinct flanging in his voice proved my assertion. "Well there little asari, not so almighty now."

I furrowed my brow. Had I met him before? I didn't say anything, which I felt made him slightly annoyed. Eventually, he continued. "You see, I know you, although you don't know me. Which is how I like it, little asari." I really didn't like him calling me that, but I didn't break silence yet. He went on, more gruff this time. "Have you lost your ability to speak, or are you just too stupid to spit out the words." I bristled and stood up, looking into what I assumed was his face, but still didn't talk. "Ask me a question, any question, and I will answer it." He growled. Although I loved to hear his growing frustration, some answers were starting to sound really good right now.

I took in a breath, and spoke my next words with a calm demeanor. In all honesty, I tried to sound like Samara. "You have gone through great pains to get me here, turian commander. Why?"

He chuckled. "So it speaks, eh? Well, I was going to tell you anyway." He moved closer to me, until I could feel his warm breath on my face as he spoke. "For my revenge. The little Red Sand deal you took care of was my bartering chip. It was my organization's first foothold on the Citadel. I can rebuild but, heh, it'll take some time. Time I was going to spend being rich." He reached forward and stroked my cheek with a armored finger, and I shuddered. "I would kill you, but there's a bounty on your head that I plan to collect that requires you be alive. It will more than pay for my little drug ring." My eye's widened. Who was going to pay that much money for me? As far as I knew, pissing someone off with that amount of money was something you're supposed to remember.

"Who-who sent out the bounty?" I half expected him to say Cerberus or something.

He just chuckled darkly. "Well I suppose you should know. You must be a little special or something, for the Collectors to want you so bad." I sucked in my breath. The Collectors?! Holy crap! Did they know about me? Did they want information? Dang it, if the Reapers knew what I knew, it was hard for me to imagine any way for Shepard to win the war. I was suddenly afraid, not just for myself, but for this cycle.

"Wait! You can't give me to them. They'll win the war if you do!"

He laughed loud this time. "War? What war? You're crazy, asari!"

I felt desperation clutch my chest. "The war that's coming, with the Reapers!"

The voice in the dark laughed even harder. "The Reapers? They're just a myth!"

I stepped forward. "You have to believe me, if the Collectors get the information in my head, this war will be over before it starts! Thessia will fall, Earth will fall, _Palaven _will fall. Please!"

He pushed me into the wall roughly, and my bruises stung. "Enough with your ranting, woman!" He growled, no longer humored. "I want my own kind of information from you. C-Sec security codes. You're going to give them to me."

My gut clenched. "I'm the one with the future in my head. I am not going to give you any codes."

"Ha! You think you have a choice? The Collectors may want you alive, but they never stated what condition of alive you needed to be in." A light flickered on by his side. It looked to be some sort of electric rod, like the ones Cerberus would use. I bit my lip as my insides turned to ice. _Goddess give me strength._

* * *

His hand struck my raw cheek as he rammed me against the wall again. He had stopped using the rod a while ago, but I suspect it was a break for my body to re-stabilize. My cheeks were probably dark purple, and wet with tears. I hated it. I felt weak, although I told myself that I hadn't been trained for this like Shepard would have been. I just needed to hold out until the Collectors got here, wherever we were, to pick me up. "TELL ME THE CODES!" He roared. He must be running out of time. He was loosing his cool. Once again the rod lit up and I braced myself for the pain. The rod came down on my side, and the jolt of electricity ran like shards of frigid ice down my spine, overloading my nerves with a debilitating pain response. My thoughts were scrambled like bits of data in a list of jammed codes. It was all I could do to open my mouth in a silent scream as he shoved the rod into my skin for a good long while. Eternity.

He pulled it away and then dug his claws like talons into the soft flesh of my arm, and I could feel a warmth pooling on my skin. Blood. "TELL ME!" I spit in his face, and he threw me onto the floor. I could feel his boot coming into contact with my side, but the pain was dull compared to what I had gone through already. Should I just tell him something fake? No, he'd just test it and then come down on me harder or something. I knew he was going to kick me again, but his foot never came. Instead, the door flew open.

A young male voice called out from the darkness. "Sir, there are C-Sec officers assaulting the south perimeter!" _C-Sec?_ In one moment of well placed desperation, I swiped the turians legs out from under him with mine and grabbed his rod, coming down hard on his face with it and turning it on. He screamed violently and flung his arms all around in a futile effort to stop me. The young man at the door started shooting, but he couldn't see. He hit the turian a few times, and my shoulder once. I flipped off the rod and darted over to him, who was still firing randomly. I thanked the goddess that it was some stupid recruit who hadn't thought to shut the door. I shocked him in the back of the neck. He fell to the ground and I felt around for his weapon. I grabbed it, a shotgun, and darted into the corridor. It was clear, and there was a dim light in it. It looked like the sun compared to that cell. I heard shouts to my right, and decided it must be south, running in that direction.

My whole body was shaking from the shocks and the overdose of adrenaline. I was numb and throbbing all over, but glad the adrenaline was keeping most of the pain away. I couldn't even feel my shoulder. I kept moving, feeling that if I stopped, I wouldn't be able to get my joints moving again. I went around the corner and had to cover my eyes from the light. I kept at it though, blinking furiously. I could now see the backs of three human and turian mercs, all in mismatched armor. I ducked behind the nearest crate. They were all grabbing weapons from a locker. Before they had a chance to arm themselves, I jumped up and let loose three bolts from my gun. They each hit one in the stomach and downed them. Lucky, cause I only had three bullets left.

I ran to the locker and grabbed a heavy pistol, throwing the shotgun aside. The door was locked, so I turned around and snatched an omni-tool off of one of the dead guys. I tapped it on and immediately got started on my cuffs. It took awhile, and I kept glancing up at every noise. This tool didn't have all of my hacking programs, so it was terrible at this, but it was doing its job. It seemed most of the men were outside fighting the C-Sec officers. Who were they? How did they find me? Not that it mattered; they were helping me escape.

I popped off the cuffs and rubbed my wrists. Dashing over to the door, I started on it's decryption. After an agonizingly long time, it opened. There was a soldier right there, looking at me. His eyes widened, as did mine. He reached for his gun, as I started charging a biotic punch. Just as he pulled it out and started to fire, I threw him back against the wall with a grunt. I felt the bullet hit my knuckles and graze my arm as it kept going. My hand fell down, distorted and spouting purple blood. I cursed. I had no medi-gel, and I was bleeding from many places. I needed to get out of here, and fast. My shattered fist didn't want to open, at least not without unbearable pain, so I left it as it was. I would have to shoot with my left, and non-dominate, hand. I ran forward.

A brighter light assaulted my eyes. It was the light of the Citadel! The outside was a mess of twisted metal and toppled crates. I saw many mercs firing at something I couldn't see. They didn't see me. I brought up my pistol and aimed at the closest one. I got him in the back of the head, and he slumped forward. The second one I shot at, but missed. He turned and fired on me. I dived to cover, jarring my destroyed hand and my many bruises. _KEELAH! Is this day ever going to not suck?_ I sucked in a breath and pushed my pain to the back of my mind. I jumped up and fired a few rounds at the advancing soldier, putting him down. One other had turned to me also. I grunted and threw a singularity out, missing the soldier closest to me but continuing on and hitting the soldier behind him. A ghost of a smile drifted across my face as I ducked back in cover. I could feel him advancing. I threw up a barrier and stood up to fall back. He fired at it with an assault rifle. My strength was dwindling fast. As my barrier shattered, my soul fell into my stomach. The sound of a shattered barrier was a terrible thing to hear. I was standing up and nowhere near any cover. He convulsed and then dropped his gun. I furrowed my brow. I couldn't believe my luck! Well, I had been kidnapped and beaten, so maybe my karma was balancing. As the soldier toppled over, I looked behind him. The officer leveled his gun at me, and I threw my hands up. "Kolyat, It's me!" The drell's furious features relaxed as he realized who I was. He ran towards me and grabbed me by the shoulders, studying my face.

"Arashu! Teleya, is that really you underneath all that blood?" I tried to smile, but it must've came out as a grimace. A shot was fired behind Kolyat, but the squish of a bullet hitting flesh came from behind me. I looked over the drell's shoulder. Bailey was standing there, and he had obviously just shot someone behind us.

"Come on you two, we need to get out of here before they send reinforcements!" Kolyat nodded to me and grabbed my hand, and we dashed towards Bailey. We followed Bailey back through a swath of bodies. We met up with Mez, and she started back with us.

"Mez? What are you doing here?"

She tapped away at her omni-tool as she ran. "Long story. I'm calling the skycar to us." Bailey just grunted as we continued to run. My breathing became labored, and every step was painful, but I knew I needed to keep going. The wail of a skycar sounded over our heads, and it came to a floating stop right in front of us.

"Get in!" Shouted Bailey. I jumped in the back with Kolyat. Mez hopped over the driver's seat and into her own. Bailey finally jumped in. As the lid closed, bullets ricocheted off of it, and I ducked down reflexively. We screamed off into the sky, angry bullets chasing after us.

"We need to get to the hospital. She's lost too much blood." Kolyat's voice sounded far away. That wasn't good. I tried to look up to his eyes, but my neck didn't want to work. I flopped my head onto his shoulder. "What did they do to you?" He whispered to me. I pressed myself closer to him.

"Information." I mumbled. It was all that I could get out. Darkness encroached across my vision. I went limp against his side as my consciousness fell away. The last hing I heard was his voice speaking urgently above my head.

_**Dun Dun Dun! **_

_**If anyone has any idea how omni-tools are equiped in Mass Effect, I would greatly appreciate a run down. I look at them and I know they must come form somewhere(duh) but I can't figure it out. Also, I'm not quite sure if I should capitalize the first letter of a race name. I've been doing it in lower case but it feels wrong...**_

_**Also, any suggestions for writing Thane's character would be extremely very amazing. :)**_


	11. Kolyat's Eyes: The Bonus Chapter

_**Sort of a little extra short chapter to pacify you guys...I am going to be gone for a few days visiting Crater Lake (yay!) So you won't see a post till Sunday inspiration for this little tidbit was provided by NIX'S WARDEN and the content inspired by elidan1012! Thanks to Kurolchi30866, hpxii, Jedi Master Albus (awesome name, by the by), and FearaNightmare for reviewing as well. All the review feedback really got me going.**_

The steady pounding of my heart beat like a war drum, stirring up my emotions as I watched Teleya positively skip away. _Thanks for looking out for me._ I was lost for words. I had noticed myself getting attached to the girl, sure, but by the time I had talked to her at the club, I wasn't able to detect just how much. The emotions were...bothersome. I couldn't concentrate, sometimes I couldn't even sleep. When I saw her though...it was like I could breathe again; like she was pulling me above some watery depth I hadn't known I was drowning in. It was pleasant at best, irritating at worst, and most of the time just confusing. I was unsure of myself, like the time my father found me on the Citadel. Stopped me from killing someone. Looking back now, I realized I should be grateful to him. I hadn't felt like that then. I still wasn't sure I did now. If it hadn't been for her...well, I suppose I never would've contacted my father, at least not for awhile. Bailey would've made me at some point.

I remembered when I first met her like it was reality...

_Shots fired. Alleyway. Body tells me to run, but my mind objects. I get closer, the shooting stops. A loud bang accompanied by biotics. 'Don't interfere. You have a job to do.' I pause. What would mother do? What would _he_ do? I run forward. A woman, Asari, tackles the Krogan. A human, as well, doing nothing. The Krogan gets up, kicks her. "You have no honor!" A word I don't recognize cuts through the air. He is going to shoot her. Before I think, I shoot him. He comes my way, and I finish him. What do I do? The Asari pulls herself up, looks to me weakly. She is small, pale blue. Fairly unremarkable compared to most. Her eyes widen...like she recognizes me? Not possible. C-Sec...She looks to her companion, and I dart to the shadows..._

I blinked my eyes closed. Fairly unremarkable? That she was, among other things. I first thought her dull, shy, and annoying. She still was, but in different ways. Her dullness, when closely examined, was really just a sign of her introverted demeanor. Her shyness was an interesting side affect of self doubt. And the annoyances she produced were actually a form of genuine worry. And her appearance, though plain, had that typical Asari attraction that not even Drell could deny, although there was something particularly...different about her. Perhaps it was just a side affect of some optimal parenting, but she seemed to be grateful of her surroundings, or at least, over-aware of them.

In time, I began to see her in a different light. Her plain appearance seemed overtaken by her personality, so that when I was looking at her, the only thing I ever noticed were the tell tale looks of her mischievous thoughts or her over-analyzing, or, most notably, her sometimes unwanted compassion.

Only, I had noted that, lately, those well-worn emotions had been becoming...familiar? No. More than that. Wanted.

I thought of all that as she disappeared behind a door. I was about to go to work, but I paused. A Turian was leaning next to the door she had gone through. He instantly stood up, talked something into his earpiece, and disappeared through the same door. My suspicious thoughts were interrupted by a screaming skycar that took off rather hastily and too close for my taste. I pondered my options for a moment, before following after her quickly.

* * *

I hung back from them as did the Turian from Teleya. She was just a vague blue form in the distance. For quite awhile, nothing happened, and the quiet neighborhood put me ill at ease. Teleya was probably enjoying it, though. Suddenly, the Turian stopped, taking a call. He nodded to me as I walked by cooly, and I nodded back. "Alright, I know, I was on my way there right now. You know I get lost when Gwen isn't here with me...uh huh." I furrowed my brow. Well, that didn't sound suspicious...I guess I should keep following her just in case. Something still felt a little wrong. After my eyes snapped up, I noticed that Teleya was no longer in my line of sight. _Shit._ I quickened my pace, but also didn't want to look suspicious. Suddenly, shots whizzed past my head. I whipped around to see the Turian lining up another shot. Instantly, without thinking, I threw him back with a thrust of biotics, and ran to the alley. A female scream made my blood run cold, but after a second, I realized it wasn't my Teleya. _My _Teleya? I rounded the alley and saw a huge Krogan chuck Teleya into a skycar. _The same skycar that took off from the precinct. _A little Turian girl was lying on the ground, but apart from being terrified, she looked unharmed. The canopy of the skycar was closing, and my desperate legs propelled me forward. I didn't know what to do. Her head popped up in the back seat, and she gazed blearily at my form. A panic welled up inside me and I reached out my too-far away hand in a futile effect to grab a hold of her. My heart worked faster than my mind and one word burst past my lips. One word that shook me, centered me, and made me choke in disbelief as it wormed past my throat. Just. One. Word.

"_**SIHA!"**_

* * *

"I'm sending the data to you now. I'll be right there. Also, look up any reports of a missing turian girl, about, six, I think." I lowered my omni-tool and sighed.

"You like that lady, don't you, mister." Came the little girl's voice. She had, annoyingly, insisted that I hold her hand. I looked down to her.

"Why do you say that?" I asked, not quite there. I was just focused on getting back to the precinct, which was now going a lot slower due to the little girl's short legs.

"Cause." Replied the girl confidently. "My momma got the same look on her face when my daddy's friend said he was going away for awhile. She was real sad after that." I nodded, but said nothing in reply. "But my momma told me not to worry about daddy. So you shouldn't worry about the lady either."

Frustration welled up inside me. How could I not worry? She had been kidnapped for Arashu's sake!

By the time we got back to the precinct, my patience was wearing quite thin. Luckily, a Turian woman was there, and she rushed to her child about as fast as I rushed to Bailey. "What've you got?" I demanded.

He looked up. "Mez is almost done tracking. Grab a gun."

I nodded grimly. "Gladly."

"I've got it!" The Quarian cried. "We need to hurry before we lose the signal." We all ran to Bailey's skycar and got in.

I looked incredulously at Mez. "What, you're coming too?"

She nodded. "You need to track it actively. I can fight too, you know." I just sighed and stared defiantly out of the window, praying to Arashu for the first time in a long while.

* * *

A soldier was ahead, his back to me. _Serves you right, sonofabitch. _I thought savagely as I cut him down with my gun. A figure was behind him, and I instinctively raised my gun.

"Kolyat, It's me!" Cried a voice. _Her _voice. I put down my gun and grabbed her by the shoulders, not believing she was really there.

"Arashu! Teleya, is that really you underneath all of that blood?" She grimaced. Her attempt at a smile no doubt. Something stirred along the fringes of my senses, but before I could do anything about it, whoever it was was gunned down.

"Come on you two! We need to get out of here before they call reinforcements!" I nodded to Teleya and grabbed her hand, slick with blood. I guided her through the swath of bodies, remembering each kill with perfect clarity. I savored them with perfect clarity too. I now knew the motives behind my father hunting down all who killed my mother. I knew now that I would do the same to anyone who hurt Teleya. Mez called the skycar to us and we all hopped in. As bullets ricocheted off the closing roof, Teleya flinched. "We need to get her to the hospital, she's lost a lot of blood." It was then that I wondered what they had done to her...I asked as much.

"Information..." She mumbled weakly, her lolling head finally flopped to a resting place on my shoulder, and action that sent unexpected shocks through my body. She was so bloody... "I looked down at her troubled face as she slipped into unconsciousness. _My friend. My siha._ "Hurry up! She doesn't have much time!" I shouted, my thinly veiled rage fueling my voice. Whoever did this...if I ever found them, they were going to pay. The skycar lurched forward with renewed vigor, as if it, too, was worried about it's fading occupant.

_**Interesting...not my strong suit, Kolyat's perspective, but a good little detour nonetheless...I'm anxious to get back to Teleya, though! So, I'd love to hear how I did on his perspective from you guys. I thought some places were a little iffy and it would be lovely for some tips in case I go down this road again c: **_


	12. Chapter 9: The Warrior Angel

_**Wasn't planning on posting tonight, but I'm in a hotel with Wi-Fi! Plus I saw all of these lovely reviews and I couldn't leave you guys hanging! Thanks jaimerider13, NIX'S WARDEN, Ozymandeos, and elidan1012 for reviewing!**_

_**Disclaimer: Don't own Mass Effect**_

Far off in my mind, I heard a voice whispering to my broken body. _"Arashu, goddess of motherhood and protection, please look after this one. Her heart is pure and her soul is strong, and I beg that you bring her back to me safely."_ I knew that voice. I wanted to get to that voice. I pushed my way through layers of drugs and drowsiness to get to him. My thoughts cleared the glassy waters of my slumber, and my eyes blinked open. I looked to my right. Beside me, sitting on a chair, was Kolyat. His head was bowed and his hands clasped in prayer. Some part of my soul was fit to burst with happiness then; I knew he wasn't religious. He was muttering something I couldn't catch under his breath and his eyes were closed. "I didn't know you were religious, Kolyat." I rasped.

His eyes snapped to mine. "Siha! You're awake..." I had expected to smile, but instead, I blushed a deep violet. "I-I'm normally not, but given the circumstances..." He paused. "You prayed for me. To my gods. I heard you while I was...asleep. I figured I could at least do the same..."

He had called me that. Siha. Again. It wasn't just a one time thing. My blush was quickly banished by his strangely leveled talking. He simply said the word as if was an established fact. I slid my hand in between his. "What happened? I can't remember after we got in the skycar."

He squeezed my hand. "You went unconscious. Then we came to the hospital."

I furrowed my brow. "But how did you find me?" It made no sense. I mean, I didn't even have my omni-tool. That thought made me bristle a little.

"When the krogan took you, I scanned the skycar as it took off. I went back to the precinct. Mez'Ralah was able track the shuttle you were abducted in using the energy signatures I obtained."

I nodded. "That explains it, and why Mez was with you guys." I chuckled. "She's more than earned those heating unit stabilizers."

The drell regarded me softly. "That she has." The door to my room opened and a doctor came through. _Great, _I thought. _More examinations._

"You have a visitor." Oh? So not an examination. Yesh! A little turian girl padded in, clutching a small plush doll. I smiled. A pretty turian lady came in after her, but stayed near the door.

"Hello little one."

She looked slightly nervous, but came forward regardless. "Hi. You're the lady who saved me and told me to be brave." She turned to Kolyat. "And you're the nice man who took me back to my mommy." I grinned and turned to him. For some reason, I was pleasantly surprised. She held up her doll, which I now saw was a little stuffed volus. "I wanna give this to you guys because you helped me, and you're nice. But, I only have one, so you need to share." The innocence and boldness of the action and the way she spoke brought tears to my eyes. Kolyat and I both reached for it, holding it together.

"Thank you little one." She ran back to her mother and reached up a small hand for the woman to take. She waved back at us as she left. As soon as the doors closed, I let a sob choke past my lips. Kolyat turned to me.

"What is wrong, siha?" There goes that word again...I smiled through the tears.

"Nothing, it's just so...sweet." I held the doll close to my heart, much like the girl had. "Thank you, Kolyat. For being here."

"I wouldn't imagine being anywhere else."

I looked up into his face and grinned, a wild kind of wistfulness overtaking my heart. _I'm crazy._ I tried to push myself up, but only managed a few inches before my limbs burned white hot in protest. _What am I doing?_ I grimaced. "Siha..." My pain was overcome by that voice. _I'm being an idiot._ I grit my teeth and hooked a hand behind his neck and pulled his head towards me weakly. _Just do it._ He got the idea, and leaned forward, albeit very confused. _Don't do it!_ I looked into his dark green irises, as he looked into me. Our faces were very close, almost touching, but not. Still, not close enough. _Follow your heart for once!_ With one last monumental effort, I pushed myself up further, my lips running into his and my painful grunt cut of by his muffled exclamation of surprise. His bafflement only lasted for a few moments, however, and he soon returned the gesture with no small amount of confusion. His lips were so...smooth and slick, not the variation of subtle roughness his reptilian skin possessed. I pulled away after a short while, looking into his widened eyes. "S-siha..." He spluttered out. Despite my pounding heart and pulsing adrenaline, tears welled up in my eyes. I didn't know what he would do. Had I been to sudden? Would he be happy, or disgusted, or just confused? I dreaded what he would say next, so I started blurting stuff out, my desperation tightening my chest and quickening my words.

"Y-you see, I-I don't know what love is, really...but...if it's like the need to see someone, and their existence in the back of your mind when they're not around and the unexplained swelling of the heart when they are, and the lightness of the soul when they smile and the happiness in the air when they laugh, and the thoughts of someone as you fall asleep and the plaguing of your dreams by that person, and the complete desperation of the soul when they're hurt and the desire to be near them and the rush of adrenaline when their skin brushes against your own and...and..." I broke off, conscious of the tears running down my cheeks. "If...if love is like all of those things combined...then..." I pressed my forehead against his and looked deep into his eyes. "Then I _love_ you, Kolyat Krios, and have loved you for longer than I could've realized." He opened his mouth and closed it many times, struggling for words. In the end, he just gave up.

I was now the one to gasp in surprise as his lips clasped mine and pushed me backwards. I put an arm out behind me to hold me up, but then forsook that position in favor of putting both arms around his neck to draw myself closer. He wrapped his arms around my back, and the feeling of closeness elicited so much comfort and pleasure that I could hardly keep myself from turning to jelly. The ticking of an imminently opening door made us jump apart like we had been shocked. Bailey walked in.

"Teleya! I heard you were awake..." He studied both of us keenly before turning around. "I'll just let you two be..." As he was walking out, Mez came to the door.

"Teleya!" She cried happily. Bailey caught her waist with his arm and drug her away until the door closed.

I chuckled. "Wow, that was...hilarious...but really awkward." Kolyat sniggered and I full out cackled in mirth. "Ow." I winced. "Owowowowowow." I clutched my side and leaned back onto the bed. A worried Kolyat grabbed my hand.

"Siha?" I studied his worried face.

"What does that even mean?" I wanted to hear it from him. I suppose I needed to.

He was silent for a long while before squeezing my hand. "It was what my father called my mother. It is the name of a warrior angel of Arashu, the Goddess of motherhood and protection. You saved my life. You are my Siha." I smiled at his raspy voice. The way he spoke and the gravel in his voice was so exquisitely him that it made me happy to hear. In was such a change, though. When I woke up, we had been friends. Now, we were more than that. Perhaps we had been more for much longer than that, in our hearts.

"Speaking of your father, have you gotten a message from him?"

He looked to his omni-tool. "Yes, but events have left me busy..."

I shook my head. "You should go check it Kolyat. I'll be fine. Mez wants to see me anyway, you can send her in while you're doing it. Who knows, he could be heading for the Relay this very minute." I didn't want him to leave, but if his father had sent him a message...besides, Bailey couldn't keep Mez at bay much longer, and it was better she got all girly when it was just me in the room.

He looked unsure, but nodded all the same.

"Alright, Siha. I'll be right back." He leaned forward to plant a kiss on my forhead. He left, and soon after, Mez came in.

My foresight was rewarded when the first words out of her mouth were, "I told you so!" We talked for hours about Kolyat, and girly things. I was both surprised and proud to learn of her willing cooperation and skill in the face of my abduction; not only did she track me down, but she fought as well. I was angered to learn that the doctors were holding me for one night for observation, but it made sense.

After a small while, I got tired, of both my wounds and my consciousness. I said as much, and Mez agreed to let me sleep. Before she went, she squeezed my hand. "I'm glad you're okay." I smiled. I was lucky to be surrounded by so many friends here. It made you think though...now, people weren't just scripted into a game's software; they were real. They had real memories and real families and could really be hurt. That was what scared me. Kolyat didn't die in the games, but he couldv'e died today, because of me. For one of the first times here, Jane was afraid. Teleya had been frightened many times, but this was the first time that Jane, as a gamer, was scared. The Reapers almost gained my knowledge today. If that had happened...I now had to protect myself. If not for my own sake, for everyone else's. I didn't intend to be some hero. I just had to survive long enough to not become a slave of the Reapers.

I fell asleep shortly after, and had a mercifully dreamless sleep. When I woke up, it was early—probably about 0200. I tried to sit up, but something kept me down. I looked to my right to see a sleeping Kolyat, whose hand was clasped determinedly in mine. Normally, I would not dare wake him. He got too little sleeping hours as it was; however, I wanted to talk with him. I admired his cutely slumbering form for a few minutes, before gently rubbing my thumb on his hand. He was a very light sleeper, I knew that much. He was quick to fall asleep, even on patrols, but the slightest bit of movement could jostle him from his dreams. I was surprised that my subtle jerk of my hand as I woke up hadn't woken him. He mumbled something before blinking his eyes open and sitting up straight, not letting go of my hand. The overall effect was adorable.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." I joked sweetly. I was _not_ a morning person, but years of getting up early for work coupled with the scene I was greeted with this morning made me chipper enough.

He was slightly confused, but was now used to my human sayings. He didn't comment on it, instead greeting me. "Good morning, Siha. I trust you slept well?" I blushed. He sounded so much like his father when he was being sweet.

"Very. I'm surprised they let you in here."

His lips quirked upward, and his usual Kolyat smugness was back in place. "They didn't."

I laughed, ignoring my protesting muscles. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?"

He merely blinked. "Pardon?"

I smiled. "Nothing." I stated, realizing that likening him to his father could start a row. "Did you read the message?"

His remaining mirth dispelled, he replied solemnly. "Yes." He bowed his head. "I'm just not sure how to react."

I frowned. "Well, what does it say?" He tapped at his omni-tool, and I grabbed his arm. "Remember not to send it to me, unless you want mercs to get it." He nodded appreciatively, instead opting to read it aloud.

"Kolyat, We are going to go through the Omega 4 Relay. Shepard is giving us time to send out our last goodbyes. We are drifting around the relay, and will be doing so for the next 24 hours. I have something important to tell you, Kolyat, and I do not want you to dismiss it, though I know you will be angry with me. There is no point in dancing around the subject. Your mother was the most beautiful and loving and fierce woman I ever met. She helped bind my body and soul, and without her I was never whole. When she died, a part of me died as well. I would never again see that light in her eyes, or her protective love, or her undying determination. I was certain of this. Until I met Kathryn Shepard. In her I see the light in Irikah's eyes and the same love and determination. She has given purpose to me, and she gave me you. I never thought I would be graced with the honor of another Siha, but I know Irikah is in this, smiling in the deep oceans of Kalahira." Kolyat stopped then, momentarily steeling himself. The deep crackling in his voice made me wince. I had no idea how I would feel if my father fell in love with someone other then my mother, especially if she was dead. "She is not your mother, Kolyat, nor can she replace her, but she fills the part of me that I have been without for years. I needed to tell you that, before we go through the relay. Whatever happens, my beloved son, I have always loved you and will always love you," His voice cracked, and I felt my own tears welling up. I dispelled them, disgusted with how much I had been crying lately. I felt for my drell, though. It was terrible to see him like this. "And if I do not return, I will be watching over you from the watery embrace of Kalahira. It is a last request of mine that you visit with the drell priests on Kahje, as I have not had the opportunity to before coming on this mission. Our religion is what strengthens our people, and without it, we are disconnected. If you are going to reply, you must do it in 24 hours, before we go through the relay. I beg of you, Kolyat, please reply. May Kalahira guide you, your loving father."

I then realized the reason for his tears. I suspected that this message had been sent more than twenty-four hours ago.

"Oh, Kolyat...I'm...sorry." Despite my screaming hot pain, I managed to twist my legs over the side of the bed and sit up, although I didn't dare move my stiff legs. My world was spinning slightly. I took his face in my hands, one a pale blue and the other wrapped in thick gauze. He had closed his eyes, but I saw fresh tear drops slide down his rough cheeks. "You don't have to hide from me, my love. It is a brave thing, to shed tears."

"Well it doesn't feel brave!" He countered with a raw voice.

I smiled, though I knew he couldn't see it. "I know. That's why it is. It takes courage to display our emotions to a world which often ridicules them. Look at me. Look at me Kolyat, my love." He finally flickered his eyelids open, meeting my gaze and trying very hard, I could tell, to not look away.

"My father might die. He might be dead right now. I told myself I hated him. I wrote to him because you said so, but I never really wanted to make things right. I...I...insulted him to his face, and then became falsely polite in my letters to avoid insulting him again. Because no matter what happens, it's like every insult I say to him is like an insult to myself, and no matter what I tell myself, I can never hate him. He's my father. No matter how much I want to hate him for not being here, and for letting my mother die, I just cant. Not when I see him hating himself for the same things." He bit back a sob, but I knew I couldn't stop him. He needed to get all of this out and if I interrupted, he might not.

"And now, I'll never be able to make it right. I didn't think I wanted to, but I know I do. The little boy that remembers his father wants to make it right, but I hate the idea of being him!" He stood up and pushed away, leaning on the window as he looked out at the fake stars. "I hate the idea of being that lost child." His shoulders shook softly, and I couldn't just let him stand there alone. _Dang it! Why do you have to be so far away! _I gingerly pushed myself off of my bed, making a mental checklist of things I shouldn't move. I avoided moving my shoulder too much, and my mangled hand underneath the bandages. It must have been bad for them to still have it wrapped up. In gauze, no less!

I slowly put my weight onto my legs, wincing as the stiff joints screamed at me for being so intrepid. I was bent at an odd angle that my body had put me in that seemed to be the least painful. It wasn't much comfort, however, because I felt like I was swimming in magma. One tiny step after the other, I inched towards him. The few feet between my bed and the window seemed like a freaking marathon, but I kept at it. I pretty much slammed against the window in my last step to get to him, crying out weakly as my bruise covered body cursed my existence. At least I could lean on it. "T-Teleya?" He ground out, his words moist and disbelieving. "What are you doing? You shouldn't be-"

"Shut up." I said, my pain making me rather unimaginative in my interruption. He furrowed his brow and frowned slightly, but said no more, thank the goddess. I collapsed on him in my best attempt at a hug, and he supported me and drew me up. "Just, shut up." I mumbled into his shoulder. "Just because I'm in pain, doesn't mean you're not." I pulled away slightly and looked into his wet eyes. He looked away, and the light of the night cycle illuminated his shining cheeks.

"I...don't know what to say. I don't know what to do...I need to write back, but, how do I reply to that?" He looked down to me with desperation.

I smiled sadly, feeling some sort of sage advice bubbling to my lips. "Like a lost child." My words no doubt shocked him, but he let me go on. "Respond like that child in you that wants to make things right. Yell at him, cry to him, or do any assortment of things that child wants to do, because nothing is going to happen if you don't get it all out. Cross all boundaries of decency if you have to, but make sure you tell him how you feel." His head twisted to the view once more, and I reached up a hand to gently guide it back towards me, to meet his pain-filled eyes. "Kolyat, nothing is going to be accomplished if you don't tell the truth, and the truth is something you understandably don't want to face." I paused, for dramatic flair, but mostly because I wanted him to grasp what I was about to say. "The truth is, your father needs to know the little boy he knew is still there, and that little boy inside you, in here," I poked his chest, "needs his father. You need him, and he needs you. It's painful, but pain has a way of making you...stronger."

He stared at me for a moment, before looking away once more. I bit back a sigh. "Kolyat?" I questioned lightly. For a moment, he seemed resolute in his stoic sightseeing, but then his lip trembled. "Hey." I murmured. "You don't have to hide from me, love." He bit his lip hard, in an attempt to stop the tears, I knew. I simply reached my bandaged hand up behind his head and guided it onto my shoulders. As I knew he would, he forgot himself for a moment. He let his hard version of himself go and stood before me as a trembling, broken mess. It hurt so much to see him like this, but he needed to get it out. I decided to let my tears go, as well. It would be hypocritical if I didn't. He sobbed onto my shoulder, and I sobbed too. This broken man in my arms was breaking my heart as well, as his pain flowed outwards. I was also slightly startled that he had opened up to me, of all people. Siha or not, we hadn't been aware of that little development for more that...hmmm, for me, just a few hours. I didn't know how long it had been for him. I didn't know how long we stood there, in each others arms, but it was a long while. When Kolyat had ran out of tears, he pulled away. He studied my tear stricken face before placing a swift, sweet, and salty kiss on my lips. I sagged in his arms, and he picked me up, placing me on my bed. He made a move to sit down on the chair beside the bed, but I grabbed his arm and patted the empty part of the bed. "Sit with me." He seemed to momentarily consider this before nodding and acquiescing to my request. And then...we talked. We just talked. About anything. Everything. After the complex going-ons of tonight, it felt good to just converse, and I could tell Kolyat felt comfortable. Our relationship had doubled, if not tripled, in the last day or so. Um...proof there was a higher power? Maybe. I remembered when I had first met the snarky, dark, and antisocial drell. He was so differant now. What I didn't understand, was why?

* * *

I woke up as someone lightly poked my arm. I blinked my eyes open to see an asari doctor standing in front of me. She smiled apologetically. "I'll be back in five minutes." Her eyes held a mixture of disapproval and sympathy, and for a moment, I wondered why. My eyes widened with realization and I suspected I was a particularly dark shade of purple. I felt the pressure of arms around me and a chest behind me. When she left, I relaxed into Kolyat's embrace. His chest was pressed against my back and his arms encircled me, one of his hands resting on my stomach. How had that happened? I remember he had fallen asleep rather endearingly on the foot of my bed the night before, and I had followed him into the deep soon after. _The deep? At least I hadn't mentioned the Cold, loving embrace of the Night mother._ I placed my own hand on top of his to wake him up. He moved behind me, and I twisted around my head to look at his face. "Good morning..._sleepyhead." _He snarked, quickly capturing my lips in his for a small moment.

I laughed. "Good morning to you too. Um...how?" He shrugged. I didn't have to look at him hard to see that a weight had been lifted off of his chest. I basked in his eyes for a moment before sighing. "You should probably go before the doctor comes to check on me."

He pouted, but conceded to my point. "Alright. I'll wait outside though. I want to walk you home when they discharge you."

"Thank you." I breathed, truly grateful. He got up and swiftly left, passing the doctor as she came in. Once the door closed behind us, the doctor smiled.

"I knew you two would make a good couple." I frowned before I remembered.

"Oh, you were his doctor."

She nodded. "Yes. Speaking of which, you haven't had any crippling headaches after that have you?" I shook my head. "Good. Well, I'm just here to check up on you and then send you on your way. You'll obviously be very sore for a week or so, maybe more. We've mended all of your bones, but you'll have to take a break from work for about two weeks. We've already talked to your boss about that so that's all taken care of. I'm just going to change your bandages before you go." She grabbed some medi-gel and some gauze from the med kit, and then returned to my hand. "Most of the bones in your hand were broken, and your knuckles shattered. We mended the bone as best we could, but had to remove some shards that were un-bondable. You'll have partial function of the hand, and you can still use it for biotics, though I wouldn't recommend using a weapon with this hand. The strain might injure it more. It will likely still hurt for awhile, and you might have some ghost pain from then on."

I was dumbstruck, so I just nodded. I had never been _really_ lastingly hurt here. Medi-gel fixes a lot of things. It was odd, knowing that I would have to use my other hand for a gun, and that my hand with always be sort of broken. She unwound the bandages, and I sucked in a slight breath. My hand was still a hand, but the skin was mangled and some of the knuckles were either larger, or cracked and smaller. My whole hand was swollen a dark, angry purple. She cleaned it, applied some medi-gel, and re-wrapped it. "I'm assuming you know how to change the bandage?" I nodded. All C-Sec officers took a mandatory first aid course. She gave me some bandages and medi-gel. "If the swelling doesn't go down in three days or you have trouble with bandaging it, just come back in, okay? Also, you lost a lot of blood, so if you feel a little faint, that's normal. Just try to stay off your feet as much as possible. Well, that's it. You're free to go." When she left, Kolyat came back in.

Noticing my pale face, he looked worried. "Are you alright?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Let's go." He helped me up and out through the hospital, my limbs not liking the idea of walking much. He called for transportation, which took us close to my house. When we got inside, he helped my to my bed, which I plopped on gratefully. He sat down next to me, rubbing my back gently. "I'd love to stay, but I have to get ready for work."

I nodded. "Mmmkay." I mumbled into my bed.

"See you later, Siha." He left to go to work, and I left to go to my dreams, clutching my little volus doll. _Siha..._something haunted me about that word, but to my slight frustration, I couldn't pinpoint what it was before exhaustion reared it's ugly head.

_**Well, there you go! Hope it wasn't too cheesy! Also, I have a feeling Teleya is a little Sue-ish. Is she?**_


	13. Chapter 10: The Confession

_**I am soooo sorry you guys for the huge break in posting. I had marching band camp all day for a week, and I was about to post a new chapter with a note that warned you guys, but my computer graciously decided to crash on me at that moment. So, my computer is finally up and running again, though the chapter I wrote was deleted, making me start from scratch. So, in short, super sorry and here it is:) Short, I know...**_

_**Disclaimer: Don't own ME. Really.**_

When my world blinked open, I felt considerably more rested, and considerably more conscious of my need for a shower. So, like anyone who would need a shower, I took one. I guess I hadn't really understood the value of sonic showers until that very moment.

Let's just say, slipping and sliding in the shower while trying to keep your bandaged hand dry is not a walk in the park. Suffice it to say, I was not a happy camper as I climbed out of the shower with even more bruises than before. I felt refreshed in a clean body and a new change of clothes, but the wet bandages were chafing my skin, and I just hated the feeling of slimy wet dressings. I sighed, figuring I should change out my bandages before it drove me crazy. I snatched some medigel and the bandages and padded over to the kitchen sink. With trembling fingers I tried to ignore, I peeled back the damp cloth and once again laid eyes on my ruined hand. I sucked in a breath and tried to tell myself I should be grateful. At least I still had a hand! At least I could still use it! A part of me, however, felt so ugly now. I wished my hand had never been hurt like this, and that wish made me feel like poodoo considering I had been blessed in it's unexpected recovery.

The Doctor had said I would have partial use of my hand, but just how much was partial use? I slowly tried to open my hand. For the first few inches, it was fine, but then after that I felt pressure under my knuckles and sickly popping under the skin. I must've drew blood on my lip as a wave of intense pain hit me like a bag of bricks. I blinked away tears and let out a ragged breath. I could only open my hand and inch. What good was an inch?!

"I know I should be grateful." I growled to no one. "But how can I be? How can I do anything now?" My voice ended in a hiss that boiled into deep anger as it seeped back down inside me. _How had I been so stupid?_ With a growl, I slammed my good hand on the counter, hurting _it. _"Keelah!" My eyes watered. "What is wrong with me?" I let out an unsteady sigh and set off for the table, floating the dressing material there with my good hand. I collapsed into a chair and roughly applied the medigel to my hand, wincing. I tried to wrap the bandages around my hand, but they just slid around on the smooth medigel. Why did I even need bandages anyway? Gah, probably to keep the medigel even on my hand. It had looked so much easier when the doctor had done it. Then again, she had had two hands.

I frowned as the bandage slipped off once more, irritating my swollen skin. I was _not_ going back to the hospital because I couldn't dress a wound! I carefully placed the end of the cloth in my palm, and brought it around my hand, pinching it, and my skin, together with my thumb and pinkie finger. The dressing jumped free of my hands, and as I scrambled for it my nails scraped against the thin layer of grafted skin on the top of my hand. Blood oozed past the skin like basaltic lava. "Dammit!" I hissed. My eyes widened, and I instantly felt like crap. I hated it when I swore. I ignored it when others did it, but rarely ever did so myself. My morning of terribleness had finally been completed.

"Siha?" Kolyat had come inside. I hadn't seen him. A grumpy wave of rebellion swooped me up.

"Don't call me that." I mumbled, dabbing at the blood with a cloth. I was slightly surprised that I had actually meant those words. Without skipping a beat, he knelt down and took my trembling hands in his. "Don't touch me." I growled half heartedly, pulling my hands away. He gave me a pointed look that I couldn't meet. When he reached for my hands again, I let him take them.

He bandaged my hands and cleaned up the mess I made. I didn't really know what to say at this point. I was currently at the place where one knows they are wrong, but suspects that relenting will be worse than continuing on as they have been. The idea of staying grumpy towards Kolyat was very distasteful, however, so I decided to let it go. Or at least, to try to.

When he was finished, he sat across from me, folding his hands on the table. I smirked slightly at his resemblance to Thane in that matter. His raised eyebrow and deadpan expression told me he wanted an answer, but I tried to ignore him. _"Siha?"_

I winced at his emphasis, but only slightly. "Yes?" I smiled innocently. I sighed after a few more moments of a raised eyebrow. "I was just crabby, alright? I'm just..." I frowned. "I'm just...frustrated. And I hurt. It's nothing really serious. I would imagine anyone who went through what I did in the shower this morning would be grumpy too." My eyes narrowed to slits, preventing Kolyat from doing anything but raising his eyebrow higher. I tried to smile. "Other than that, nothing really pressing. Just circumstances." He finally broke eye contact, looking down to the table.

"Not everything was caused by circumstance." He sighed. "I saw your face. You were _ashamed_ when I called you siha." He looked back up at me with pained eyes.

I froze, backpeddled, and cursed in my head. I had said it. I had meant it. Not in the way he was interpreting it, though. "Oh, ah, no, I didn't mean it like that. I just..."

"You just what?" He asked warily. I had forgotten he wasn't Thane. Of course he would be more cautious of being hurt in a relationship.

I sighed. "I wasn't ashamed of you, I was ashamed of _me._"

He blinked both eyelids at the same time, mouth slightly open and eyebrows knitted in confusion. "Why?" He finally blurted out. I bit my lip. _Why? Is he blind or am I insane?_ "Why would you-"

"Um, Kolyat? Look at me, I'm just some Asari with delusions of grandeur, thinking she can be a good C-Sec officer because she has biotics and, uh, guesses at the future, and can sort of fire a gun. I mean, If anyone is an angel warrior, it's someone like Shepard..." I winced a second before he did. Baaad choice of words. He was still a little sore on that subject, I could tell.

He recovered quickly, though, seemingly relieved it wasn't something about him. He reached across the table and took my good hand. "You must not believe that, siha. I know how easy it is for someone to pass judgment on oneself, but it is most often unjust..." He sighed. "Shepard is a strong human and a skilled warrior. I might not have this life if not for her. So yes, she rightly bears the title of siha. You, though, are a warrior in a different way. Shepard was born a soldier, you were born a poet. Your imagination and creativity is what colors you, though you have chosen to help others in favor of helping yourself. You are noble and brave. I know battle frightens you. I've seen your hands tremble in the fight, but that doesn't stop you from shooting straight. Shepard may accomplish unimaginable things that you could not, but they come easier to her than getting up each morning and pledging your life to service does to you. In proportion, you are, to me, more of a siha than Shepard could ever be."

I knew my mouth was hanging open. I knew my face was slick with tears. I knew the disbelief in my head like it was an old friend. What I didn't know, was how the Drell sitting across from me had managed to utter every single one of those words with complete and utter sincerity.

I gulped down the rock in my throat and smiled shakily. "I m-might not ever believe everything you just said, but..." I let out a breath. "I can't..." I choked on my words. Looking up to Kolyat's face, I saw a picture of concern. "I-I'm fine. It's just...sometimes I wonder why I'm here. I feel worthless. But, I've found that, when someone feels down like that, the best thing is to hear that they _are _worth something." I tentatively moved my bandaged hand towards his, which he took gently. "Well, you just told me I'm worth _you._" I laughed shakily. "I think that's the best thing I've heard all week."

Kolyat opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a beeping from his omni-tool. I repressed a small twinge of jealousy. My omni-tool hadn't been recovered, obviously, and the one I stole off of the merc had sucked. My trivial thoughts were cut off by the look of shock and slight panic on Kolyat's face. I furrowed my brow. "Kolyat, what is it?" He looked up at me slowly, and suddenly he looked more like the Drell that I had met so long ago: the Drell who was lost and confused, and took a contract in search of answers he couldn't find.

Very slowly, as if he was afraid of his own words, he murmured, "The Normandy. It just docked."

**I apologize a thousand times for the shortness of the chapter, but after already writing it before, it was torture to write it over again and feel like I wasn't capturing it like I had earlier. I suffered from extreme writers block and ended up forcing this out of my brain. **

**I would love to hear what you thought about Kolyat's 'Siha Speach.' Also, If you guys have any suggestions or things you would love to see character development wise, I would love to incorporate it. I'm feeling kind of dry after being separated from my story for so long:( I feel like some fresh ideas would kick-start me!**

**Last thing, If anything like this long delay ever happens again, I'll post something on my profile page to inform you guys.**


	14. Chapter 11: The Double Date

_**I apologize abundantly for the very substantial wait, but a lot of meddlesome things have been getting in the way. I also took a little break to work on my A-Team fanfic. Thank you all who reviewed, your ideas really helped my writing. Elidan1012's suggestion got me up and running through my writers block, so you all have him to thank!**_

_**Disclaimer: Don't own ME**_

The soft glow of the ward arms cast a demure light upon the crystalline hull of the Normandy as it sat docked on the Citadel. The poor ship almost looked like it was slumping against the docking arms for support. Kolyat stood next to me, hand in mine, nervous but still. He pulled a small book out of his pocket and held it tight. "What's that?" I asked softly. I thought I knew.

"It's a...Drell prayer book. I thought it appropriate." I frowned. My Shep didn't lose anyone, but I guess you never know. I squeezed his hand tighter in support.

"Aww you guys are soo cute!" Mez'Ralah cried from behind us. We both spun around in opposite directions, breaking our hands apart. I sighed and Kolyat frowned.

"Hey Mez. What are you doing here." She seemed to sober up at this.

"I ah, wanted to say goodbye..." My eye's widened. I quickly shook my head.

"Hey, Kolyat, why don't you run ahead, yeah?" He sighed and nodded, stalking off towards the Normandy. I didn't want him to see me blubbering with Mez like girls tend to do sometimes. "Mez, I didn't know you were leaving so soon."

She wringed her hands together. "I wasn't going to, but a ship from the Migrant Fleet is actually docking on the Citadel! That's so rare, you know? I just can't pass this up."

I nodded. "I-I don't know what to say. I don't want to see you go, Mez."

The little quarian gave a moist laugh. "I never thought I'd be so sad to go. You're like a...sister to me. Or at least what I imagine a sister would be like."

I smiled and took her shoulders in my hands, though tears dripped down my face. "Same here." I swallowed hard. "You will write, won't you? I mean, I don't have an omni-tool, but you could always use Kolyat's."

At that, the quarian perked up a bit. Her voice was coy. "What do you mean you don't have an omni tool?" She tossed me a package that I barely caught. My eyes widened as big as the biggest marbles I had as kid.

"You didn't..."

She crossed her arms, smiling. "I did. Go on, open it!"

I certainly didn't wait any longer. I ripped the package open and sure enough, there was a bona fide omni-too wristband, ready to be attached to armor or slipped over a bare wrist. I squealed, throwing the packaging up and disintegrating it with a little biotic pulse as I snapped it onto my wrist. I tapped it on, startled when it glowed a brilliant purple. If possible, my eyes grew a little wider. "How did you do that."

She shrugged. "I'm a Quarian." She said it like it explained everything. I suppose it did.

I just shook my head. "How did you afford it?! This is a Logic Arrest Tool. Top of the line! And it's purple!"

She shrugged. "I had money saved up for my pilgrimage, which you helped me achieve for free. I did get shot at, but it was free. Besides, I had a little help." She winked.

"Kolyat." I breathed.

She laughed. "As for the color, I figured it would match you quite well, at the rate you discharge blood."

I laughed at that. "Mez, this is the best present I've ever gotten. I think."

She crossed her arms. "You think?"

I put my hands up. "I'm over 200 years old, I can't remember every present I've ever gotten."

She chuckled. "Fair enough. I've loaded some aesthetic modifications you can glance at. You can pick the one you like. I also put your movies on there, as well as your contacts. In fact, most of your old data is there. I hacked into your old omni-tool and downloaded the most I could, then shut it down. Those mercs aren't going to get any use out if it. That is, if they're still alive."

I grinned. "Thanks, Mez. you're the best."

She struck a pose. "I know."

"Heeeeey!" Came a yell from behind Mez. Another Quarian was a ways away. She looked very-holy shiz, It was Tali!

Mez turned around. "Just a second!" She yelled back. Turning to me, she hugged me quickly. "I have to go. I'll message you, I promise!"

"Bye! Have fun with a new name."

She started off, yelling behind her. "I will! Send me wedding invitations!"

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever!" I chuckled to myself. I started off to the Normandy, scrolling through the things on my Tool. I smiled. Mez had downloaded some old earth music, which included some Beatles, Seals and Crofts, Billy Joel, and the Soundtrack to American Graffiti. She had also put on some Quarian Jazz. I shook my head. She had wanted me to listen to that for an age.

The door to the airlock opened, but the door to the Normandy did not. A beam of light came out and scanned me. "May I ask your name?" Came a cultured computer voice. EDI.

"Oh, ah, yeah. Teleya T'Leri."

"Ah. Mister Krios informed me that you would be passing through. One moment, the decontamination sequence will take a short time."

"Um, thank you. Where is Kolyat now?"

"Kolyat Krios and Thane Krios are in the elevator, and are about to emerge on the CIC level."

"Thanks, uh, Normandy VI." I had almost, almost, called her EDI.

"You may call me EDI."

"Alright EDI." I resumed searching my Tool. I grinned when I saw a handful of Star Trek shows and movies had been downloaded. I had mentioned I had liked it, but I didn't know she had really noticed. The doors opened.

"Have a nice day, Miss T'Leri."

I smiled. "You too, EDI." I looked back down to my omni-tool, moving forward with half a mind. "Yesh! Nemesis!" One moment, I was reveling in one of my favorite Star Trek movies, and the next, face planting on the cold floor of the Normandy.

"Ouch." I heard Garrus say to my right.

"Nice face plant." Said Joker. For a moment I forgot those two were some of my favorite characters, and my mind growled. Throw them out the airlock! Honestly, what does EDI see in him?

I winced. "Oh yes, thank you for helping me up. You're such gentlemen." I stated mockingly. I grabbed onto a sturdy looking wire to help me up, but it snapped, and I fell back down.

"Hey, that's my ship!" Cried Joker.

"Well, if one of you would HELP ME UP-"

"S-Teleya!" I heard thumping boots running towards me._ Thank the Goddess he didn't call me Siha in front of Thane. That would be all kinds of awkward._ Kolyat grabbed my arm and my waist firmly, helping me up. "Are you alright?" He was still holding me, and I knew I was blushing.

"Y-Yeah. Fine." I stepped away and glared at the cockpit. "It's nice to see there are some gentlemen aboard this ship."

Joker threw his arms in the air. "Ah, yeah. Blame the cripple." I almost laughed. Joker reminded me of Wash, you know, minus the dinosaur collection.

Garrus shrugged. "It was funny."

I rolled my eyes. Then I remembered Thane. I turned to where the Drell was patiently standing. "H-Hello Mr. Krios." I held back a wince at my flustered voice. Thane was very observant, and I wondered if he could see that we were together. How much had Kolyat told him about me, anyway? _Oh gosh oh gosh, I'm going to die!_

He held out a hand, which I politely shook. "It's a pleasure to see you again, Lt. Commander."

"The pleasure's all mine." I was going to have a panic attack. Why was I so worried about this? Thane was a nice guy. I guess it was just the fact that any way we did this was going to be awkward.

"I believe Bailey wanted to talk to you." I shot Kolyat a grateful look for changing the subject.

Thane nodded. "Of course." We headed out of the airlock into a very awkward decontamination sequence, which I suspected the newly unshackled EDI sped up sympathetically.

When Thane was talking with Bailey, I ushered Kolyat away. "You haven't told him?"

He blinked and the pause was noticeable. "No."

I bit my lip and massaged my temples. "We have to." I said after a moment. He nodded. "Like, soon." He studied my nervous features. Finally, he grinned. "What." I stated warily.

"How does dinner sound?" I blinked. Dinner? That was pretty much right now! I wasn't ready, I wasn't mentally prepared...He sighed. "You look fine, and you'll do fine."

I frowned. "B-But, how are we gonna tell him?"

Kolyat shrugged. "We'll make it up as we go along." The look on my face must've been complete horror. I did not 'make it up as I went along'. I was the meticulous nitpicker when it came to social contact. I was inept at it, so I tried to be prepared for anything beforehand. "It'll work out, Siha."

I gave up with a large sigh. "All right. We should go talk to him about dinner then, huh?"

"Did you two have plans for dinner?" I jumped about a foot in the air, heart instantly at double pace. Thane had come up at the side, slightly behind me. Kolyat was hiding a snicker. I would have smacked him, but instead I just sent him a mini-glare. "I did not mean to startle you, Miss T'Leri."

I tried to smile. "No harm done."

"Believe me, she does it a lot." Kolyat glanced at me playfully. I rolled my eyes.

"Anyway, we were thinking about going to dinner. Do you want to join?"

He thought for a moment. "Shepard and I made plans." Kolyat stiffened next to me. I bit my lip.

"Ah, I see." I didn't know what else to say.

"I do not see why she would object to us eating together." I blinked.

"Like a double date?" Blurted Kolyat.

My face flushed instantly. "No! No, Kolyat. Just four people, eating dinner...together..." _OH. GOOD. AND. FLUFFY. LORD. Did I just say that, out loud?_ I practically yelled it! Silence.

"So, would you two like to come?" I glanced at Kolyat. His gaze said no. Actually, it said, 'Do not say yes, for the love of all things in this universe. DO NOT SAY YES!'

* * *

"You said yes. Why did you say yes?"

I studied my outfit in the mirror. "What was I supposed to do, refuse?"

Kolyat threw his arms up. "Yes! Refusing would have been nice."

I sighed. "I couldn't just say no, Kolyat. Thane thought it was a good idea and...and...look, I dunno. I just couldn't say no to him, okay." I spun around in the mirror, frowning.

"You look fine."

I looked back at the girl in the mirror, remembering the first time I looked in it, screaming at the Asari I saw. This time, she was wearing a white tank top under an orange cardigan. I was also wearing an old cream skirt that belonged to my mother. "Great. I look fine. I was kinda going for beautiful, but you know, fine's good too." I placed my hands on my hips. Sarcasm wasn't something I used a lot, but it was one of the finer points of human satire.

Kolyat blinked at his mistake. "I'm sorry if I-"

"No, no. I'm just stressed out, is all." I plopped down on my bed. "I'm so awkward with people."

"You're not awkward around me." Kolyat countered.

I sighed. "Sure, but I know you. Kolyat, did you see me bumbling around back there with your father?" I rested my chin in my hands. "I mean, I'm better now that I'm...older, but you should have seen me before." I smiled at the perfect quote to use. "I'm the girl who stands in the corner, trying to look comfortable examining a potted plant."

He sat down next to me. "Well, you weren't like that when you first met me. Maybe you're psyching yourself out a little."

I shrugged. "Maybe. But...you were just so easy to talk to. I mean...I guess I don't know what I mean. I'm just a woman really. And what do women do?" I threw my arms into the air, smiling falsely. "WORRY!" My arms fell down in my lap, and I scowled.

"Well, you said yes." I turned to look at his smirking face, raising my eyebrow.

"I suppose I did."

He put his arm around me. "Siha?"

"Hmmm?"

"Siha, you look beautiful." I looked into his dark eyes. I smiled and let out a breath.

For once, I didn't argue with that, like I was inclined to do for no reason. I just took it as it was, knowing it was true in his eyes. I was beautiful. "Thank you, love." I stood up, twirling to face him. "I'm ready. I'm ready to go make a fool out of my self. Wait, no negative self talk. That's bad. Positive self talk. I'm ready to go not make a fool out of myself." I grinned.

Kolyat shook his head and stood up, towering over me. "You're crazy, siha."

I smiled sweetly. "I know. Let's go."

* * *

We both stood outside of the restaurant, equally freaking out. "Deep breaths dear." I said shakily.

"That's easy for you to say. I'm going to have to sit and eat with my father's siha! And she's not my mother!"

I raised an eyebrow. "And he's going to have to sit and eat with his son's." A pause. "Um, is it too late to say I don't feel good." Kolyat gave me a look. "No really, I don't feel good."

"Hello." I screeched and jumped._ Keelah freaking se'lai!_ I gathered myself and turned to face Thane.

"H-Hello." I tried to smile. "Nice to see you again Thane, Commander."

Thane nodded to me, and Shepard smiled. "I'm off duty, T'Leri. Just call me Idalia." I blinked. Well, there goes programming.

I nodded back. "Of course. And you to can call me Teleya." Shepard-Idalia-was wearing a longer black dress with three-quarter sleeves and a sweetheart neckline. It was really pretty, and not ugly like the in-game fancy-wear.

We all stood there awkwardly. Shepard cleared her throat. "Well, ah, anyone else hungry?" Our answers of 'sure' 'of course' and 'yeah' mingled together, and we headed for the entrance. Oh Lord, help me please. I took a deep breath. I was going to need all the help I could get.

An Asari waitress took us to our seats. She had been eyeing me! Kolyat sent her a glare that made me giggle. Our table was in the middle, and I sat, of course, in the seat that faced the entrance. Thane paused, and I could tell he was going to sit there. I think he was contemplating sitting next to me for a spell, so he could se the entrance too, but he sat down next to Shepard, who was sitting across from me. Kolyat sunk down in the chair next to mine until I nudged him to sit up straighter. I knew that if conversation didn't start soon it would be really awkward.

"So how did-" "Has anything-" Shepard and I had started talking at the same time. It seems our human (sort of, in my case) tolerance for awkwardness was pretty much spent. "You can-" "I'll wait" We blinked. Shepard smiled and I took a deep breath to indicate I was going to talk. "Go ahead, Idalia."

Shepard nodded. "Has anything interesting happened at the precinct lately? Besides drug busts?"

I laughed, but it sounded a little nervous. Just then, a waitress came up with menus. We said thank you and she left. We all opened them up, scanning them for something good. I really didn't want to try alien food, but I couldn't see anything Human on the menu...oh, wait, I was looking at the Dextro side. _Gorram it..._ I flipped it over and Kolyat sniggered. I leaned to him. "You weren't going to actually let me order that, right?" I whispered.

He returned to reading his menu with a raised eyebrow. When his faced was obscured from the across the table people, he winked at me. I rolled my eyes. I quickly found the Human food._ No spaghetti, because that gets all over my face...hmmm...Italian does sound good though...OH! Ricotta filled ravioli in sweet marinara sauce! Score!_ I put the menu down to see the others had too. We gathered them together and placed them on the side of the table. "Well, besides botched drug busts and vengeful mercenaries, I'd say it's been peachy." At least I was comfortable enough to half-joke. The waitress came and took our orders. As usual, I stammered when it came to me. That always happens when I was ordering food!

"So, what's this about mercenaries?" Asked Shepard. Thane looked interested too. So, Kolyat hadn't talked about that in his reply. He looked uncomfortable.

I shrugged, nervous now. "Well, I was sorta kidnapped by some mercenaries that were angry that I killed the Krogan drug runner. Kolyat, Bailey, and my friend Mez'Ralah broke me out."

Thane and Shepard exchanged glances. Thane looked genuinely concerned. "Are you unhurt from the kidnapping?"

Now it was time for Kolyat and I to exchange glances. "Umm...Mostly." I got out roughly. "I mean, I'm still a little sore and my hand..." I winced and held up my bandaged hand. "Biotic punch meets mass effect propelled bullet."

Shepard whistled. "Ouch. Can you still use it for biotics?"

I smiled sadly. "That's yet to be determined." The waitress came back and set down our food that she had been bioticly carrying. My ravioli looked so good. Kolyat and Thane had ordered something that looked a lot like...a giant bug. I took one look at it and looked at Shepard. She was staring at me like 'what the crap' before she shrugged and started on her teriyaki noodles. We took breaks between eating and talking, thankfully. "So. How was the mission?"

Shepard swallowed, looking thoughtful. "We all made it back. We're a little banged up, but we stopped the Collectors."

I nodded. I was curious to see who she picked for each role in the Suicide mission, but I suppose there was no way that was going to happen. "That's good." I literally said that. _Yay everybody lives! That's good._ Kolyat said nothing pretty much the whole time. Thane was equally quiet. Shepard and I started small-talk conversations for the most part. It was really getting super awkward by now.

After getting fed up, I flicked Kolyat's hand under the table; it had been resting on his leg. For a moment I didn't know if he had got the message after I slipped my hand away, but he came forward quickly afterwards.

"What are you going to do now?" He rasped.

Shepard looked up and smiled sourly. "Go back to earth to face a court martial."

Kolyat looked to Thane. "Father?"

Thane paused. "I was thinking of settling down on the Citadel, somewhere nearby."

I could feel Kolyat tense, physically and mentally. Thane was watching him intently, and Shepard had even stopped chewing. "I think that's wonderful." I put in awkwardly.

"Thank you."

We all looked away and started eating again. I think we all wanted our food gone so this night could be over.

* * *

Finally, Shepard paid our bill and we stood up to leave. We were walking out when we heard a scream in the alley next to us. All of us instantly started towards it, glowing in biotics. We got sight of some thugs harassing a group of young human women.

"Hey, Slimeballs!" Cried Shepard. I blinked. Okay, Hannibal Smith. The men all looked to us, grinning cockily.

"Hey, sweetheart, you wanna play?" Shepard slammed the guy against the wall. Thane took one of the others and Kolyat did the same. I pulled up a weak biotic barrier with my good hand and beckoned the girls over. They all ran to cover and I started to usher them away.

"Where do ya think you're going, cupcake?" A disgusting voice echoed behind me. I whirled around, abandoning my barrier and shoving the girls away with a wave of biotics with my good hand. I heard them all scurrying away. The man came at me so fast, my action was governed entirely by instinct. I threw a biotic punch. With my bad hand. A wave came up my arm, into my hand, and time seemed to stand still. The blocked energy blew outwards painfully and it forced both me and my attacker backwards. I cried out as my hand throbbed in terribly agony. I didn't even feel my back hitting the ground. My vision blurred from the pain as I clutched at my fist. It was still bandaged, but it felt like it was torn apart.

And through the fog, I heard his voice. "SIHA!" I heard running, and I felt hands on my shoulders. Everything was quiet, and in slow motion. Suddenly, it all came rushing back, and I could feel myself being shook, and the frantic hands that pulled me closer.

"I'm fine." I croaked. "It just...it hurts. Oh, God, it hurts!" I closed my eyes and tried to curl up. I vaguely heard something about 'the ship being closer' and I felt myself being picked up. Then I slid into darkness.

* * *

An infernal beeping filled my ears as I came to. Man, I keep falling unconscious! I blinked my eyes open. I couldn't feel my hand. In fact, I couldn't really feel anything. I tried to move, but I couldn't. The beeping sped up as my heat rate increased. "Calm down, you're alright. I gave you a neuro-supressor to keep you from damaging your spine until it's repaired. It'll only take a little longer. I can sedate you until it's finished if you'd like that."

I looked up at the older medical lady. "Where's..." My throat was parched.

"Your Drell friend is probably with his father."

"Kolyat and Thane Krios have been informed of your status Miss T'Leri. They are on there way." Chimed EDI.

Just then, the door opened and in walked the two Drell. The doctor informed them of the situation. Kolyat came to sit by me, while Thane kept talking to the lady. Kolyat gently caressed my forehead with his hand. "I'm glad you are all right, siha."

I smiled. "Me...too." I choked out. Kolyat frowned, got up, and came back with a glass of water. He gingerly helped me to drink. "I love you." I murmured softly after I had drained the whole glass. I looked up at Thane. "He knows?"

Kolyat nodded. "Yes. I kind of screamed Siha in the alley. When we had gotten you in here, he pulled me aside and started asking me all of these questions." He sighed and rolled his eyes.

I laughed weakly. "You mean, he was being a father?"

He thought for a moment. "Yes, he was."

Thane walked over to my bed. "How are you feeling?"

I smiled weakly. "Um...numb? I must've hurt my back, huh?"

Thane nodded. "A small percent of the biotic pulse you sent through your hand was dissipated in your nervous system, damaging your spinal cord. The damage can be repaired easily enough."

I smiled. "That's good to hear..." I took in a breath. "I'm just a magnet for trouble, aren't I?"

Kolyat chuckled. "I think you got it from me."

"All right, you two, out. I need to sedate her for the final step of the procedure."

Thane nodded. "Sleep well." He stepped away.

Kolyat took my hand and, after a moment, kissed my forehead. "I'll be waiting for you."

I nodded, and my heavy eyelids drooped. I hadn't even felt the doctor administer the sedative.

**_There we are. That took me a really long time to write, and I apologize. I don't know when the next chapter will be out, but I really only get time to write on the weekends, so that would be a good time to check if you're still following this._**


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